FCS Financial: One Hundred Years July 2016 | Página 10

An ad run by the Federal Land Bank Association of
Carthage in the Jasper County News, January 28, 1965.

Since 1960 the Intermediate Credit Banks had been handling
the data processing for banks and associations. Offices in
Columbia, Louisville, St. Paul, Springfield, and Wichita stored
data by which various credit and management decisions were
made. Out in the field, however, everything was done manually
well into the 1970s. Loan applications and receipts were written
out by hand or on manual typewriters. Transactions were noted
on members’ account cards which were mailed to Louisville
where they were processed and new cards sent back to the branch
offices. Loan officers often took pads of mortgage notes out into
the field to fill out loan applications.
The 1970s was a period of agricultural
euphoria that sent the lessons of the
Great Depression flying in the wind.
Farmers borrowed heavily to expand their
operations to meet worldwide demand
for U.S. agricultural exports. To ensure
the Farm Credit System could meet the
growing demand for capital, the Farm
Credit Act of 1971 was passed expanding
the banks’ and associations’ lending
The ribbon is cut on the new Marshall office in the early
practices to include rural homeowners,
1970s. The FLBA is on one side, the PCA on the other for
the members’ convenience.
commercial fishermen, and businesses
that provided on-the-farm services and
raised the limits on land bank loans. Due
to the increased value of land, farmers—
primarily young farmers—began leasing
land, as did the large commercial farmers.
They then used their credit to purchase
equipment and livestock.

Just as the farmers were expanding, so were the associations. The
new Fayette office is launched with a ribbon cutting in 1973.

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The Sedalia office in 1973 had the initials PCA and FLB
worked into the design of the wrought iron railing.