WASHINGTON The American Bankers Association plans to survey banks that make Department of Agriculture-guaranteed loans to find out how long it takes them to get paid on loss claims.
There is anecdotal evidence that collecting on these loss claims takes an extraordinary amount of time, said John M. Blanchfield, the director of the ABAs Center for Agricultural and Rural Banking.
Mr. Blanchfield said he was waiting to see if the USDA would provide him a list of guaranteed lenders, including banks, credit unions, and Farm Credit institutions, that have filed claims in the past two years. If he cannot get that list, he said he would sample the list of all guaranteed lenders, which is already public information.
