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Richard Fredricks, a bank examiner at the FDIC in Nebraska, used his time at an ABA conference to encourage executives at farm bank to remain vigilant policing loans and to learn from the experiences of commercial lenders.
November 7
Their business is robust, but farm bankers cannot stop being a little paranoid.
Roughly 600 lenders from agricultural banks gathered in Indianapolis for the American Bankers Association's National Agricultural Bankers Conference last week. Though their profits are strong and the property values of farm land remain high, they did not spend time congratulating each other on a job well done. Instead, several sessions, including one with Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. officials, focused on how vigilant farm bankers must be for signs of a bubble.
Matthew H. Williams, president of Gothenburg State Bank and Trust Co. in Nebraska and the chairman-elect of the ABA, sought to calm the waters. He advised attendees that excessive handwringing doesn't help.
"We can spend a lot of time determining if there is a bubble or not," Williams said during an executive panel Monday. "But as bankers we are in the risk management business. So you weigh that risk and decide if it is prudent risk to accept in our own shops."
