Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Promotion - Alicia Marcy

I am pleased to announce that Alicia Marcy has been promoted from Office Assistant to Financial Services Assistant in our St. Albans office. When Alicia joined us in December 2008, she was working on an associate’s degree in accounting from Community College of Vermont. She earned that degree in June 2009 and she expects to earn a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Champlain College in December. Alicia’s studies included courses in income taxation and she is currently taking internal Farm Credit tax training. She is looking forward to her new duties in our Financial Services Department.

We will soon be posting a position for an office assistant in our St. Albans office. Alicia’s transition to the Financial Services Department will be effective on or about November 1st to allow time to train her replacement.

Please join me in congratulating Alicia!

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Stephen Gould - Farm Credit Fellow























Stephen Gould of Batavia, NY visited the Newport office the week of August 6-10 as part of the Farm Credit Fellows program.  Steve is going to be a senior at Cornell University this fall and is majoring in Animal Science with a concentration on dairy.  He received his two year degree from Alfred State and transferred to Cornell to finish his four year degree.  In addition to his week-long internship with Farm Credit, Steve did a full summer internship on a large dairy in central Michigan.  Steve’s family runs a 150-cow organic dairy in western New York.  After graduation he would like to return to the home farm.

Thursday, August 16, 2012

Promotion - Suzanne Petig

I am pleased to announce that Suzanne Petig has been promoted from Credit Analyst to Loan Officer in our St. Albans office. Suzanne began her career with Yankee in 1988 as an Office Assistant and has held a variety of credit support positions since that time. She completed an associates degree in business administration from Trinity College in 1994. She has taken internal Farm Credit tax training, and has passed the Assistant Tax Specialist exams 1A and 1B.

Please join me in congratulating Suzanne!

We will soon be posting a credit analyst position in our St. Albans office.

Thursday, August 9, 2012

Q2 Financial Results

Quarterly net income for Yankee was $2.5 million, an increase of $621 thousand over 2011. Net interest income increased 4.1 percent to $3.0 million, up from $2.9 million in 2011. The most significant factor driving the increase in net income is an increase of $484 thousand in other income as compared to 2011. The increase in other income resulted primary from $393 thousand in refunds from the Farm Credit System Insurance Corporation (FCSIC).

For the first six months of 2012, net income increased 18.0 percent to $4.5 million, up from $3.8 million a year ago. Net interest income increased 3.1 percent to $6.0 million. There was a reversal of the provision for credit losses of $112 thousand through the second quarter of 2012, as compared to no provision for credit losses for the same period in 2011. Other income increased by $503 thousand, primarily due to the FCSIC refund of $393 thousand.

Loans held by the Association at June 30, 2012 were $351.6 million, up 3.4 percent from year end. The loan portfolio continues to be concentrated in the dairy industry, with 55.2 percent of the loans invested in dairy businesses. The second largest concentration is timber, with 12.0 percent of the loan volume at quarter end.

Credit quality across Yankee’s loan portfolio remained stable during the quarter and well within the risk-bearing capacity of the Association. At quarter end 1.7 percent of the Association loans were classified as nonperforming, up slightly from 1.6 percent at the end of 2011. There were no loan charge-offs or recoveries in the quarter. The Association’s permanent capital ratio at quarter end was 20.6%, unchanged from the end of 2011.

The 2011 patronage refund to members in the amount of $3.7 million was paid 100% in cash on March 23, 2012.

Saturday, August 4, 2012

Promotion - John Peters

I am pleased to announce that John Peters will succeed Bill Heath as the Association’s Senior Vice President/Chief Credit Officer, effective 10/01/12. Bill’s last day in the office will be Friday, Sept. 28th. (This is one month later than previously announced.)

John has 39 years of experience with Farm Credit, having started in 1973 following graduation from UVM with a BS in plant and soil science. His initial position was fieldman in the South Burlington office of the Federal Land Bank Association (FLBA) and Production Credit Association (PCA) of South Burlington. John was branch manager of the Middlebury office from 1974 to 1986. From 1986 to 1993 he held a variety of positions in credit, financial services, appraisal and training, and also managed the St. Albans office for a time. John moved into appraisal full-time in 1993 and still maintains his license as a certified general real estate appraiser.

Shortly after Yankee Farm Credit was formed in 1995 John became our first Director of Quality Control, in charge of internal credit and collateral review (ICR) and internal audit. He also continued to do fee appraisal work for a time. In 2006 John became Vice President/Operations and Corporate Secretary. The Association hired out the ICR work 2006-2011, but John resumed this job in 2012.

Some northeast Farm Credit history: When John started with Farm Credit in 1973, the northeast training program for newly hired college graduates was called START; later that program evolved into the Career Development Program (CDP). There were eight people in the 1973 START class. John is the last remaining member of that class to be working full time for Farm Credit, but three other members of that class also had long careers with Farm Credit and only recently retired: Bill VanEe, appraiser for Farm Credit in western New York; Dick Baldwin, most recently employed by Farm Credit Financial Partners, Inc. (FPI) as director of training for northeast Farm Credit; and Bob Egerton, most recently employed by CoBank as eastern region president.

Please join me in thanking Bill for his service to Yankee (summary here) and in congratulating John on this promotion.

UPDATE 8/04/12: My bad! Dick Baldwin hasn't retired yet. FPI convinced him to put off retirement for a year.