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CoBank in Denver has completed its merger with U.S. AgBank in Wichita, Kan., creating an $85 billion cooperative bank in the Farm Credit System.

CoBank said Tuesday that the combined bank, based in Denver, will offer financial services to agricultural cooperatives and rural power, water and communications service providers. It also will provide wholesale loans financing to 29 Farm Credit associations.

The bank will operate as CoBank and retain it cooperative structure. Robert B. Engel, CoBank's president and chief executive, remains in those roles.

For the first year, the bank will be governed by a 32-member board made up of the former CoBank and U.S. AgBank boards. On Jan. 1, 2013, the size of the board will be reduced to 24 directors. 

CoBank is now one of the four funding banks in the Farm Credit System, a national network of cooperatively-owned lending institutions that serve the agricultural sector.

The deal, announced in December 2010, closed on Sunday.