FEDERAL AGRICULTURAL MORTGAGE CORP

Farmer Mac is a mission-focused, purpose-driven company determined to drive economic opportunity and prosperity by increasing the accessibility of financing for American agriculture and rural infrastructure. As the nation’s secondary market for agricultural and rural infrastructure loans, we help strengthen and connect rural America by providing a broad array of financial solutions to lenders that support flexible low-cost financing to farmers, ranchers, agribusinesses, renewable energy projects, rural utilities (including telecommunications, fiber, and broadband projects), and other related rural businesses and enterprises. Farmer Mac also serves as a critical investment tool for entities such as states, counties, municipalities, pension funds, banks, public trust funds, and credit unions. Farmer Mac offers those entities a variety of investment opportunities that may diversify their investment portfolios and provide the opportunity to earn a competitive return on their investment dollars.

During 2023:

•we continued to increase net income and core earnings;

•we maintained strong liquidity in our investment portfolio well above regulatory requirements;

•we maintained our strong capital position, well above regulatory requirements, and uninterrupted access to the debt capital markets, which historically have not been subject to the same short-term disruptions and liquidity concerns experienced by institutions that rely primarily on deposits to fund their assets; and

•we provided $8.3 billion in liquidity and lending capacity to lenders serving rural America.

Farmer Mac’s performance during 2023, described in more detail below, reflects the success of our continued focus on pursuing new channels and innovative ways to further our mission to increase the accessibility of financing for American agriculture and rural infrastructure. Despite recent macroeconomic concerns such as inflation, failures and liquidity concerns in the banking industry, rising interest rates, and geopolitical conflicts, Farmer Mac continued to deliver solid financial results. These financial results for 2023 reflected a variety of factors, including:

•our disciplined approach to interest rate risk management that helps to protect earnings from the effects of interest rate volatility and has been accretive to Farmer Mac during periods of rising interest rates;

•effective capital strategies that resulted in advantageous funding in an elevated interest rate environment in the current period;

•an increase in outstanding business volume at higher spreads while credit quality improved; and

•the resilience of the farm economy, as producers had benefited from healthy farm incomes and liquidity from relatively high commodity prices in 2021 and 2022.

The discussion below of Farmer Mac's financial information includes "non-GAAP measures," which are measures of financial performance not presented in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles in the United States ("GAAP"). For more information about the non-GAAP measures Farmer Mac uses, see "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Use of Non-GAAP Measures."

Net Income and Core Earnings

The following table shows our net income attributable to common stockholders and core earnings for the periods presented. Core earnings and core earnings per share are non-GAAP measures that differ from net income attributable to common stockholders and earnings per common share, respectively, by excluding the effects of fair value fluctuations and specified infrequent or unusual transactions.

Table 1

The $21.9 million year-over-year increase in net income attributable to common stockholders was due to a $44.7 million after-tax increase in net interest income and a $2.9 million after-tax increase in guarantee fees. These factors were partially offset by a $15.6 million after-tax decrease in the fair value of undesignated financial derivatives and a $12.1 million after-tax increase in operating expenses.

The $39.6 million year-over-year increase in net income attributable to common stockholders for 2022 compared to 2021 was due to a $38.7 million after-tax increase in net interest income and a $17.6 million after-tax increase in the fair value of undesignated financial derivatives. These factors were partially offset by a $5.2 million after-tax decrease related to the non-recurrence of the gain on the sale of mortgage loans that occurred in the prior period, a $6.6 million increase in operating expenses, a $2.5 million increase in preferred stock dividends, and a $2.4 million increase in our provision for credit losses.

The $46.8 million year-over-year increase in core earnings was due to a $56.4 million after-tax increase in net effective spread, partially offset by a $12.1 million after-tax increase in operating expenses.

The $10.7 million year-over-year increase in core earnings for 2022 compared to 2021 was due to a $27.5 million after-tax increase in net effective spread. This factor was partially offset by a $5.2 million after-tax decrease related to the non-recurrence of the gain on the sale of mortgage loans that occurred in the prior period, a $6.6 million increase in operating expenses, a $2.5 million increase in preferred stock dividends, and a $2.4 million increase in our provision for credit losses.

For more information about net income attributable to common stockholders, the composition of core earnings, and a reconciliation of net income attributable to common stockholders to core earnings, see "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Results of Operations." For more information about the non-GAAP measures Farmer Mac uses, see "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Use of Non-GAAP Measures."

Net Interest Income and Net Effective Spread

The following table shows our net interest income and net effective spread in both dollars and percentage yield or spread for the periods presented. Farmer Mac uses net effective spread, a non-GAAP measure, as an alternative to net interest income because management believes it is a useful metric that reflects the economics of the net spread between all the assets owned by Farmer Mac and all related funding, including any associated derivatives, some of which may not be included in net interest income.

Table 2

The $56.6 million year-over-year increase in net interest income was primarily due to a $48.9 million decrease in funding costs and a $19.9 million increase related to net new business volume. The decrease in funding costs was primarily due to our disciplined funding strategies and higher nominal interest rates that have led to an upward repricing of our excess long-term capital that we raised when interest rates were at historical lows and is held in our investment portfolio. The factors that contributed to the increase in net interest income were partially offset by an $11.2 million decrease in the fair value of derivatives designated in fair value hedge accounting relationships (designated financial derivatives). In percentage terms, the 0.11% increase was primarily attributable to a decrease of 0.16% in funding costs and a decrease of 0.04% in net fair value changes from designated financial derivatives.

The $49.0 million year-over-year increase in net interest income for 2022 compared to 2021 was primarily attributable to a $21.9 million increase from net new business volume and a $21.4 million decrease in funding costs, due to increasing yields on interest-earning assets on our short-term investments that are funded by non-interest bearing excess equity, and a $6.1 million increase in the fair value of designated financial derivatives. In percentage terms, the year-over-year 0.10% increase was primarily attributable to a decrease of 0.08% in funding costs and an increase of 0.02% in net fair value changes from financial derivatives designated in hedge accounting relationships (designated financial derivatives).

The $71.5 million year-over-year increase in net effective spread was primarily due to a $54.6 million decrease in non-GAAP funding costs, due to the same factors mentioned above that decreased our funding costs, and a $20.6 million increase related to net new business volume. In percentage terms, the year-over-year increase of 0.16% was primarily attributable to a decrease in non-GAAP funding costs.

The $34.9 million year-over-year increase in net effective spread in dollars for 2022 compared to 2021 was primarily due to a $23.6 million increase from net new business volume, a $7.7 million decrease in non-GAAP funding costs, due to increasing yields on interest-earning assets on our short-term investments that are funded by non-interest bearing excess equity, a $2.4 million increase in net servicing revenue, and a $0.9 million increase in cash-basis interest income. In percentage terms, the year-over-year increase of 0.04% was primarily attributable to a decrease of 0.03% in non-GAAP funding costs and an increase of 0.01% in cash-basis interest income.

For more information about Farmer Mac's use of net effective spread as a financial measure, see "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Use of Non-GAAP Measures." For a reconciliation of net interest income to net effective spread, see Table 10 in "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Results of Operations—Net Interest Income."

Business Volume

Our outstanding business volume was $28.5 billion as of December 31, 2023, a net increase of $2.5 billion from December 31, 2022 after taking into account all new business, maturities, and paydowns on existing assets. The net increase was primarily attributable to a net increase of $1.4 billion in the Rural Infrastructure Finance line of business and a net increase of $1.2 billion in the Agricultural Finance line of business.

For more information about Farmer Mac's business volume, see "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Results of Operations—Business Volume."

Capital

Table 3

The increase in capital in excess of the minimum capital level required was primarily due to an increase in retained earnings.

Credit Quality

The following table presents Agricultural Finance on- and off-balance sheet substandard assets, in dollars and as a percentage of the respective portfolio as of December 31, 2023 and 2022:

Table 4

The decrease of $16.8 million in on-balance sheet substandard assets during 2023 was primarily driven by the full payoff of a substandard agricultural storage and processing loan. The $6.6 million decrease in substandard assets in our off-balance sheet portfolios during 2023 was primarily due to credit upgrades in livestock and crops, and was partially offset by credit downgrades in permanent plantings and part-time farms.

There was one substandard asset with an outstanding balance of $29.4 million in the Rural Infrastructure Finance portfolio as of December 31, 2023, and there were no substandard assets as of December 31, 2022.

For an analysis of current loan-to-value ratios across substandard and other internally assigned risk ratings, see Table 26 in "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Risk Management—Credit Risk—Loans and Guarantees."

The following table presents 90-day delinquencies for the on- and off-balance sheet Agricultural Finance portfolios in dollars and as a percentage of the respective balance sheet category as of December 31, 2023 and 2022:

Table 5

On-balance sheet Agricultural Finance assets 90 or more days delinquent decreased in agricultural storage and processing and was partially offset by increases in permanent plantings, crops, livestock, and part-time farms. Off-balance sheet Agricultural Finance assets 90 days or more delinquent decreased in permanent plantings and livestock and was partially offset by increases in crops and part-time farms. The top ten borrower exposures over 90 days delinquent in either the on- or off-balance sheet Agricultural Finance portfolio represented over half of the aggregate 90-day delinquencies as of December 31, 2023.

As of both December 31, 2023 and 2022, there were no 90-day delinquencies in Farmer Mac's portfolio of Rural Infrastructure Finance loan purchases and loans underlying LTSPCs.

For more information about Farmer Mac's credit metrics, including 90-day delinquencies, the total allowance for losses, and substandard assets, see "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Risk Management—Credit Risk—Loans and Guarantees."