Ag goups ask gov. to leave Farm Credit System alone

The National Pork Producers Council and 22 other national agriculture groups recently sent a letter to Congress, encouraging them not to change the Farm Credit System.
The letter, addressed to Sen. Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark., highlighted a letter sent last year asking that “the Farm Credit System not be swept up in any effort to resolve problems with the housing GSEs, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, the commercial banking or securities regulatory structure. Including Farm Credit in these legislative initiatives would undermine the mission that the Agriculture Committees gave Farm Credit some 90 years ago.”
The organizations take issue with the Consumer Financial Protection Act (CFPA), that established a federal agency given broad authority to oversee the provision of credit and financial products and services to consumers. The letter states:
"While the language of the proposed legislation does not specifically reference the Farm Credit Administration (FCA), the Farm Credit System or the Farm Credit Act, the language of the bill impacts Farm Credit directly. The definitions of 'credit,' 'consumer financial product,' 'covered person,' 'financial activity,' 'leasing,' 'financial product or service,' all capture the Farm Credit System and how it conducts business. Under the bill, Farm Credit System institutions are treated no differently than unregulated finance companies rather than the highly regulated set of federally chartered institutions that they are."
"We ask that you take whatever steps are necessary to keep the Farm Credit System out of larger financial institution reform efforts."