12 U.S.C. § 2254: Examinations

Each institution of the System shall be examined by Farm Credit Administration examiners at such times as the Board may determine, but in no event less than once during each 18-month period. Such examinations may include, if appropriate, but are not limited to, an analysis of credit and collateral quality and capitalization of the institution, and appraisals of the effectiveness of the institution’s management and application of policies governing the carrying out of this chapter and regulations of the Farm Credit Administration and servicing all eligible borrowers. Examination of banks shall include an analysis of the compensation paid to the chief executive officer and the salary scales of the employees of the bank. At the direction of the Board, Farm Credit Administration examiners also shall make examinations of the condition of any organization, other than federally regulated financial institutions, to, for, or with which any institution of the System contemplates making a loan or discounting paper. For the purposes of this chapter, examiners of the Farm Credit Administration shall be subject to the same requirements, responsibilities, and penalties as are applicable to examiners under the National Bank Act [ 12 U.S.C. 21 et seq.], the Federal Reserve Act [ 12 U.S.C. 221 et seq.], and Federal Deposit Insurance Act [ 12 U.S.C. 1811 et seq.], and other provisions of law and shall have the same powers and privileges as are vested in such examiners by law. Each institution of the System shall make and publish an annual report of condition as prescribed by the Farm Credit Administration. Each such report shall contain financial statements prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles and contain such additional information as the Farm Credit Administration by regulation may require. Such financial statements of System institutions shall be audited by an independent public accountant. The Farm Credit Administration may publish the report of examination of any System institution that does not, before the end of the 120th day after the date of notification of the recommendations and suggestions of the Farm Credit Administration, based on such examination, comply with such recommendations and suggestions to the satisfaction of the Farm Credit Administration. The Farm Credit Administration shall give notice of intention to publish in the event of such noncompliance at least 90 days before such publication. Such notice of intention may be given any time after such notification of recommendations and suggestions. furnish for the confidential use of the Farm Credit System Insurance Corporation reports of examination of the institution and other reports or information on the institution; and examine, or obtain other information on, the institution and furnish for the confidential use of the Farm Credit System Insurance Corporation the report of the examination and such other information; or if the Farm Credit Administration Board determines that compliance with the request would substantially impair the ability of the Farm Credit Administration to carry out the other duties and responsibilities of the Farm Credit Administration under this chapter, notify the Board of Directors of the Farm Credit System Insurance Corporation that the Farm Credit Administration will be unable to comply with the request. A System institution shall not be considered to have waived the confidentiality of a privileged communication with an attorney or an accountant if the System institution provides the content of the communication to the Farm Credit Administration pursuant to the supervisory or regulatory authorities of the Farm Credit Administration. high production costs and low commodity prices have combined to reduce farm income to the lowest levels since the depths of the Depression in the 1930’s, to subject many agricultural producers, through no fault of their own, to severe economic hardship, and in many cases temporarily but seriously to impair producers’ ability to meet loan repayment schedules in a timely fashion; and a policy of adverse classification of agricultural loans by bank examiners under these circumstances will trigger a wave of foreclosures and similar actions on the part of banks, thereby depressing land values and prices for agricultural facilities and equipment and having a devastating effect on farmers and the banking industry, and upon rural areas of the United States in general. It is therefore the sense of Congress that the Federal bank regulatory agencies should ensure, in their examination procedures, that examiners exercise caution and restraint and give due consideration not only to the current cash flow of agricultural borrowers under financial stress, but to factors such as their loan collateral and ultimate ability to repay as well, for so long as the adverse economic effects of the cost-price squeeze of recent years continue to impair the ability of these borrowers to meet scheduled repayments on their loans.”