Northwest Farm Credit Services has reported 2015 earnings of $255.6 million, an increase of $27.5 million, or 12 percent, compared with $228.1 million in 2014.  

The Spokane-based agricultural lending cooperative says its higher net income was due mostly to continued loan growth and positive credit quality trends. The organization also reported that total capital increased 8.6 percent during the year to $2.1 billion. 

As a cooperative, Northwest Farm Credit Services each year returns a share of its net income to its members in the form of patronage dividends. The association’s board recently approved an increase in patronage from 0.75 percent to 1 percent of a customer’s eligible average daily loan balance.

In a recent press release, President and CEO Phil DiPofi indicated 2015 was another solid year for the association, saying, “Based on strong earnings, reserves, and capital levels we are sharing a higher percentage of the association’s profits with our customer-members this year.”

The $91.9 million cash patronage returned set a record for the co-op and was up significantly compared with $64.1 million for 2014. Since the patronage program began in 2000, Northwest Farm Credit Services has returned $591 million in cash patronage to customer-members.

Northwest Farm Credit Services is a financial cooperative that provides more than $10 billion in financing and related services to farms, ranches, and natural resource businesses in Montana, Idaho, Oregon, Washington and Alaska. The co-op, which celebrated 100 years of service last year, is a member of the nationwide Farm Credit System supporting agriculture and rural communities with financial services.