FCS Financial: One Hundred Years July 2016 | Page 12

Jefferson City PCA Board of Directors (L to R) William Charles, Stan Cook Jr., Chairman Jim Zerr, Paul Bexten, and
James McMullin in a meeting, December 1983.

difficult decisions. By 1985 the Farm Credit System was holding $69.8 billion in
outstanding loans with losses totaling $2.7 billion, the largest one-year loss of any
financial institution in U.S. history. Though unpopular, federal assistance looked
like a necessary evil in order to keep the system solvent.
The Farm Credit Amendments Act of 1985, signed into law by President
Ronald Reagan on December 23, 1985, tightened the policies and practices of the
entire Farm Credit System. Starting in 1985 the Farm Credit System in Missouri
began consolidating offices and taking cost-cutting measures to remain solvent.
Many good employees were permanently laid off. In 1986, the Federal Land
Bank Associations and Production Credit Associations went under common
management to pool resources and cut costs. The Central Production Credit
Association (CPCA) was organized in 1986, made up of nineteen service centers
in three states—Missouri, Illinois, and Arkansas—to save many of the PCAs from
insolvency by pooling resources.

Officers of the three Farm Credit Banks in the 1980s
are shown here. It was during this decade that these
three banks and the Farm Credit Districts began to
function as a single nationwide system with uniform
standards in finance and credit due to the worsening
condition of the nation’s agricultural economy.
The last St. Joseph PCA board meeting was held in
1985. Shown here (L to R): Doris Leakey, Meredith Kapp,
Chairman Carl Spencer, President Don Trickey, Kenton
Schwarz, Phill Hull.

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