Federal Agricultural Mortgage Corp (AGM) 2023 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Good morning, and welcome back and thanks, but yes, good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Farmer Mac Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2023 Results Conference Call.

早上好，歡迎回來並表示感謝，但是，女士們先生們，早上好，歡迎參加 Farmer Mac 2023 年第四季度和全年業績電話會議。

At this time, all lines are in listen only mode. Following the presentation, we will conduct a question and answer session. If at any time during this call you require Amevive assistance, please press star zero for the operator. This call is being recorded on Friday, February 23rd, 2024.

此時，所有線路均處於僅監聽模式。演講結束後，我們將進行問答環節。如果您在此通話期間任何時間需要 Amevive 協助，請按下接線員的零號鍵。本次通話錄音時間為 2024 年 2 月 23 日星期五。

I would now like to turn the conference over to Jonathan Nazareth. Please go ahead.

我現在想把會議交給喬納森·拿撒勒。請繼續。

Good morning, and thank you for joining us for our fourth quarter and full year 2023 earnings conference call on Delta Nazareth, Senior Director of Investor Relations and Finance Strategy here at Farmer Mac. As we begin, please note that the information provided during this call may contain forward-looking statements about the Company's business strategies and prospects, which are based on management's current expectations and assumptions. These statements are not a guarantee of future performance and are subject to the risks and uncertainties that could cause our actual results to differ materially from those projected, please refer to Farmer Mac's 2023 Annual Report on Form 10 K filed with the SEC today for a full discussion of the Company's risk factors on today's call, we will also be discussing certain non-GAAP financial measures. Disclosures and reconciliations of these non-GAAP measures can be found in the 2023 form 10 K and earnings press release posted on Farmer Mac's website, Farmer Mac.com under the Financial Information portion of the Investors section.

早安，感謝您參加 Farmer Mac 投資者關係和財務策略高級總監 Delta Nazareth 參加的 2023 年第四季度和全年收益電話會議。在我們開始之前，請注意，本次電話會議期間提供的資訊可能包含有關公司業務策略和前景的前瞻性陳述，這些陳述是基於管理層當前的預期和假設。這些陳述並不是對未來業績的保證，並且受到風險和不確定性的影響，可能導致我們的實際結果與預測存在重大差異，請參閱今天向SEC 提交的Farmer Mac 2023 年年度報告10 K 表格，了解完整的資訊在今天的電話會議上討論公司的風險因素的同時，我們還將討論某些非公認會計準則財務指標。這些非 GAAP 指標的揭露和調整可在 Farmer Mac 網站 Farmer Mac.com 投資者部分財務資訊部分發布的 2023 年 10 K 表格和收益新聞稿中找到。

Joining us from management this morning is our President and Chief Executive Officer, Brian Olson, who will discuss 2023 business and financial highlights and strategic objectives and Chief Financial Officer, Aparna Ramesh, who will provide greater detail on our financial performance, select members of our management team will also join us to provide additional information on business trends and credit conditions. At this time, I'll turn the call over to President and CEO, Brad.com. Brett.

今天上午，我們的總裁兼執行長布萊恩·奧爾森(Brian Olson) 和我們的管理層一起加入我們，他將討論2023 年的業務和財務亮點以及戰略目標，首席財務官阿帕納·拉梅什(Aparna Ramesh) 將提供有關我們財務業績的更多詳細信息，並選擇我們的成員。管理團隊也將與我們一起提供有關業務趨勢和信用狀況的更多信息。此時，我會將電話轉給 Brad.com 總裁兼執行長。布雷特。

Thanks, Joe, Bob, and good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. 2023 was a remarkable year for Farmer Mac. We produce double digit earnings growth and record net effective spread, and we substantially grew business volume, all while maintaining credit quality and holding our efficiency ratio below our target of 30%. Our success continues to be driven by our team's execution of our multiyear strategic plan, disciplined asset liability management decisions and funding execution and successful business development efforts, which have resulted in the diversification of our revenue streams.

謝謝喬、鮑勃，大家早安，謝謝你們今天加入我們。 2023 年對 Farmer Mac 來說是非凡的一年。我們實現了兩位數的獲利成長並創下了淨有效利差記錄，業務量大幅成長，同時保持了信貸品質並將效率比率保持在 30% 的目標以下。我們的成功繼續得益於我們的團隊執行多年戰略計劃、嚴格的資產負債管理決策和資金執行以及成功的業務開發努力，這些努力導致了我們收入來源的多元化。

Our strong capital base and uninterrupted access to the capital markets support our long-term strategic growth objectives while also providing a buffer against market volatility and changing credit market conditions.

我們強大的資本基礎和不間斷的資本市場准入支持我們的長期策略成長目標，同時也為應對市場波動和不斷變化的信貸市場狀況提供緩衝。

So let me be a bit more specific in comparison to the prior year 2022, we concluded 2023 with a 28% growth in net effective spread to $327 million, a 38% growth in core earnings to $171 million and a 10% growth in outstanding business volume to $28.5 billion.

因此，讓我更具體地說，與去年2022 年相比，我們在2023 年結束時淨有效利差增長了28％，達到3.27 億美元，核心收益增長了38％，達到1.71 億美元，傑出業務成長了10％交易額達到 285 億美元。

I believe that it is the combination of our passion for our mission, our expertise and discipline, coupled with our exceptional access to debt securitization markets and consistent asset-liability management that enables us to deliver consistently strong financial results. I fervently believe that passion for mission, the passion from our employees, our Board, our executives, I believe that it really turbocharges our expertise and discipline to deliver these exceptional results.

我相信，正是我們對使命的熱情、我們的專業知識和紀律，加上我們進入債務證券化市場的特殊機會和一致的資產負債管理，使我們能夠持續提供強勁的財務表現。我堅信，對使命的熱情，我們的員工、董事會和高階主管的熱情，我相信它確實增強了我們的專業知識和紀律，以實現這些卓越的成果。

As you read in this morning's press release, we announced a 27% $0.30 per share increase in our quarterly common stock dividend to $1.40 per share beginning the first quarter of 2024. This reflects the 13th consecutive year that Farmer Mac has increased its quarterly dividend we are resolved to increase our dividend on an annual basis with a policy focused on achieving a targeted payout that balances or reasonable growth of both previous and future earnings along with maintaining an adequate level of capital to exceed our requirements and support our expectations for our future business volume growth, as I've said for a couple of years, diversifying our loan portfolio and serving more of our clearly defined market segments has been a key priority over the last years, and that diversification is benefiting us through changing market cycles in 2023, we have provided a gross $8.3 billion in liquidity and lending capacity to lenders serving rural America, reflecting net year-over-year outstanding business volume growth of over $2.5 billion. The rural infrastructure line of business grew $1.4 billion or 21% year over year to $8 billion as of year end, primarily due to new AgVantage facilities with existing and new counterparties and growth within the renewable energy and telecommunications portfolios.

正如您在今天早上的新聞稿中讀到的那樣，我們宣布從 2024 年第一季開始，我們的季度普通股股息將每股 0.30 美元增加 27%，達到每股 1.40 美元。這反映了 Farmer Mac 連續第 13 年增加季度股息，我們決心每年增加股息，政策重點是實現目標派息，平衡或合理增長之前和未來的收益，同時保持足夠的股息資本水平超出我們的要求並支持我們對未來業務量成長的預期，正如我幾年來所說，使我們的貸款組合多樣化並服務於更多明確定義的細分市場一直是過去的一個關鍵優先事項多年來，這種多元化正在透過不斷變化的市場週期使我們受益，到2023 年，我們已向服務於美國農村的貸方提供了總計83 億美元的流動性和貸款能力，反映出未完成業務量的同比淨增長超過25 億美元。截至年底，農村基礎設施業務年增 14 億美元，即 21%，達到 80 億美元，這主要是由於與現有和新交易對手建立的新 AgVantage 設施以及可再生能源和電信投資組合的增長。

The agricultural finance line of business increased $1.2 billion or 6% year over year to $20.5 billion, primarily driven by the acquisition of approximately $600 million of mortgage servicing rights for Farm & Ranch loans held by and serviced for a third party new AgVantage securities with our long-standing institutional counterparties and loan purchase growth in farm and ranch corporate agribusiness through a Vantage Securities and the wholesale financing space work on key driver to overall volume growth in both lines of business. The continued demand within this space reflects the comparative competitiveness of Farmer Mac's advantage pricing relative to market alternatives.

農業金融業務線年增12 億美元，即6%，達到205 億美元，這主要是由於收購了第三方新AgVantage 證券持有並為其提供服務的約6 億美元農場和牧場貸款抵押貸款服務權。長期的機構交易對手以及透過 Vantage 證券和批發融資空間在農場和牧場企業農業企業中購買貸款的增長是這兩個業務線總體銷量增長的關鍵驅動力。該領域的持續需求反映了 Farmer Mac 相對於市場替代品的優勢定價的相對競爭力。

Looking ahead to 2024, we believe, especially given the uncertainty and volatility around the interest rate environment that Farmer Mac will continue to be viewed as unique relative value and diversifying funding source for many institutional counterparties, driving exceptional growth in the rural infrastructure line of business where the renewable energy and telecommunications portfolios. As we predicted on a number of prior calls, our total renewable energy segment more than doubled in size during the year. And our telecommunications portfolio grew nearly 60% year over year, given the strong demand for renewable power generation and storage and the growing investment in fiber and broadband in rural America, we continue to focus on strategic talent acquisition and these two areas to build our expertise and capacity as market opportunities arise. Our Farm & Ranch segment modestly increased over 2022, primarily because of the higher interest rate environment.

展望2024 年，我們相信，特別是考慮到利率環境的不確定性和波動性，Farmer Mac 將繼續被許多機構交易對手視為獨特的相對價值和多元化的資金來源，從而推動農村基礎設施業務的超常成長其中再生能源和電信投資組合。正如我們在之前的多次電話會議中預測的那樣，我們的可再生能源部門的總規模在這一年中增加了一倍多。鑑於對再生能源發電和儲存的強勁需求以及美國農村地區光纖和寬頻投資的不斷增長，我們的電信投資組合同比增長了近60%，我們將繼續專注於戰略人才獲取和這兩個領域來建立我們的專業知識和市場機會出現時的能力。我們的農場和牧場業務在 2022 年略有成長，主要是由於利率環境較高。

There was relatively strong activity in the fourth quarter of 2023 and the higher demand for Farm & Ranch loan purchase product has continued into the first quarter of 2024, further reflecting borrowers' adjustments to the new rate environment. We are cautiously optimistic about the increase in farm or ranch loan purchases in 2024. Farmers generally have strong cash positions, but we have seen a slower increase in land values versus the prior years, and we expect a decline in 2020 for farm incomes as input costs remain elevated and commodity prices continue to rise.

2023年第四季的活動相對強勁，農牧場貸款購買產品的較高需求持續到2024年第一季度，進一步反映了借款人對新利率環境的調整。我們對2024年農牧場貸款購買量的增加持謹慎樂觀態度。農民普遍擁有充足的現金頭寸，但我們發現土地價值的成長速度較前幾年有所放緩，而且我們預計 2020 年農場收入將下降，因為投入成本仍然居高不下，大宗商品價格繼續上漲。

Saeed, as we've previously mentioned, we acquired $600 million of mortgage servicing rights on Farm & Ranch loans held by service for a third party in the second quarter of 2023. During 2023. We also purchased servicing rights for approximately $700 million of mortgage servicing rights for Farmer Mac loans owned by Farmer Mac. These transactions have enabled us to expand our servicing portfolio for the first time since we added the servicing function in the third quarter of 2021. This capability gives us more direct oversight and governance of our portfolio enhanced security, more control over timely access to data and better visibility into loan performance from inception to maturity.

Saeed，正如我們之前提到的，我們在 2023 年第二季度獲得了為第三方服務持有的農場和牧場貸款的 6 億美元抵押貸款服務權。2023 年期間。我們也為 Farmer Mac 擁有的 Farmer Mac 貸款購買了約 7 億美元的抵押貸款服務權。自 2021 年第三季增加服務功能以來，這些交易使我們首次擴大了服務組合。這種能力使我們能夠對投資組合進行更直接的監督和治理，增強安全性，更好地控制及時存取數據，並更好地了解從開始到到期的貸款績效。

Looking ahead, we will seek to continue to capitalize on this initiative to create a more efficient process for our customers and their borrowers and achieve economies of scale with minimal incremental expense.

展望未來，我們將尋求繼續利用這項舉措，為我們的客戶及其借款人創建更有效率的流程，並以最小的增量費用實現規模經濟。

Another area of significant focus is our farm securitization program. We have closed a $300 million transaction every year for the last three years and expect to be back in the market in the first half of 2024. We're committed to being a regular issuer in the market for the set of securitization products that align with customer power and investor interests. Developing this capital flow to agricultural producers exemplifies Farmer Mac's core mission to lower costs for the Empower and improve improved credit availability in rural America by also creating an underlying agricultural investment opportunity in the capital markets.

另一個重點關注的領域是我們的農場證券化計劃。過去三年，我們每年完成一筆 3 億美元的交易，預計 2024 年上半年重返市場。我們致力於成為市場上符合客戶實力和投資者利益的一系列證券化產品的常規發行人。向農業生產者發展這種資本流動體現了 Farmer Mac 的核心使命，即透過在資本市場上創造潛在的農業投資機會，降低 Empower 成本並提高美國農村地區的信貸可用性。

Looking ahead to 2024, we will strive to continue to be a source of reliable capital for our stakeholders as we navigate the ongoing uncertainty in the broader markets. We want to step in where we can to be a partner to our customers and more effectively fulfill our role as a secondary market provider of low cost, liquidity and capital efficiency for the ultimate goal of strengthening the rural economy. On prior calls, I've talked about an expansion of our approach to marketing and branding here at Farmer Mac. You will soon begin seeing our efforts to use branding to deepen our connection with our stakeholders in a compelling and uniform way to support the expansion of our mission driven work. It helps build a strong and vital role in America initiative is intended to highlight our distinctive position as a secondary market partner that fosters greater connections between Wall Street and Main Street America, as well as across the entire value chain, fuel growth, innovation and prosperity in America's rural and agricultural communities. In no small part. The fuel for that growth also comes from our active creation of more investment opportunities for the capital markets and strong access to capital. A significant competitive advantage for us is our people and their Interwoven's connection of mission expertise and discipline. I don't believe you can separate separate those attributes and how they're committed to accelerate opportunities for rural America, we recognize their contributions and even more fully align these attributes. We have continued to enhance our benefit offerings to include all employees in an equity for All program to make them eligible to receive annual grants of equity based compensation. I'm extremely proud of our team and all they've accomplished in 2023.

展望 2024 年，在應對更廣泛市場持續存在的不確定性時，我們將努力繼續成為利害關係人可靠的資本來源。我們希望成為客戶的合作夥伴，更有效地履行作為低成本、流動性和資本效率的二級市場提供者的角色，以實現增強農村經濟的最終目標。在之前的電話會議中，我談到了 Farmer Mac 行銷和品牌推廣方法的擴展。您很快就會開始看到我們努力利用品牌以令人信服和統一的方式加深我們與利益相關者的聯繫，以支持我們使命驅動工作的擴展。它有助於在美國發揮強大而重要的作用，該計劃旨在突出我們作為二級市場合作夥伴的獨特地位，促進華爾街和美國主要街道之間以及整個價值鏈之間的更緊密聯繫，推動增長、創新和繁榮在美國的農村和農業社區。不小一部分。這種成長的動力也來自於我們積極為資本市場創造更多投資機會和強大的資本獲取管道。對我們來說，一個顯著的競爭優勢是我們的員工和他們的 Interwelve 的使命專業知識和紀律的連結。我不相信你可以將這些屬性與他們如何致力於加速美國農村的機會分開，我們認識到他們的貢獻，甚至更充分地調整這些屬性。我們繼續加強我們的福利服務，將所有員工納入「全民股權」計劃，使他們有資格獲得每年基於股權的薪酬。我為我們的團隊以及他們在 2023 年所取得的成就感到非常自豪。

Now I'd like to turn over the call to Aparna Ramesh, our Chief Financial Officer, to discuss our financial results in more detail.

現在我想將電話轉給我們的財務長 Aparna Ramesh，更詳細地討論我們的財務表現。

Thank you, Brad, and good morning, everyone. 2023 was an exceptional year for pharma. Results were strong across the board, highlighting a balanced well measured approach, excellent credit quality and resiliency through market cycles. Our performance in Q4 2023 enabled us to finish the year with very strong momentum. Net volume growth in Q4 2023 was $819 million and this was primarily driven by new AgVantage securities volumes in the rural utilities and farm and ranch segments and strong loan purchase volume across the farm and ranch renewable energy and Rural Utilities segment. As Brad mentioned, the improvement in Farm & Ranch loan purchase volume in the fourth quarter has created positive momentum heading into 2024.

謝謝布拉德，大家早安。 2023 年對製藥業來說是不平凡的一年。全面的業績表現強勁，凸顯出平衡且衡量良好的方法、卓越的信貸品質以及市場週期的彈性。我們 2023 年第四季的表現使我們以非常強勁的勢頭結束了這一年。2023 年第四季的淨交易量成長為8.19 億美元，這主要是由農村公用事業和農場和牧場領域新增的AgVantage 證券數量以及農場和牧場可再生能源和農村公用事業領域強勁的貸款購買量推動的。正如 Brad 所提到的，第四季度農場和牧場貸款購買量的改善為 2024 年創造了積極勢頭。

Turning to results for earnings were $44.9 million or $4.10 per share in Q4 2023 and $171.2 million or $15.65 per share in 2023. And this reflects double digit year-over-year growth, which was largely driven by record net effective spread of $84.6 million in Q4 2023 and $327 million for the entire year. The year over year 16 basis point improvement in spread to 118 basis points and yet as of year end was primarily driven by our low cost of capital, our debt funding strategy and previous low rate environment and our ability to redeploy the excess capital and the lower cost of funds into higher earning assets. This advantage was further enhanced by the continued trend towards higher spread volume that is evident in our new segments like renewable energy and corporate S&M, the capital that we raised opportunistically when rates were at historical lows in 2020 and 2021, it reduced the need for us to raise more expensive down and callable debt. In the current rising rate environment, we continue to defensively hold approximately $900 million of cash and other short-term instruments in our liquidity portfolio, not only does it help us weather potential market disruption disruption. Our exit and highly liquid capital generate immediate returns in a high nominal rate environment. While the rise in short-term rates has provided a benefit to earnings. We project limited downside to any rig decline in the future, and this is due to our proactive equity capital allocation strategy where we're laddering and varying durations to minimize balance sheet and earnings volatility. Specifically, we expect to retain some of this benefit over the medium term, even if rates declined. And to that end, we started extending maturities in our investment portfolio. Despite the macro headwinds, we continue to see strong access to debt capital markets and agenda of flight to quality investments, which allows us to be very well positioned to fund new asset opportunities as they arise. Our liquidity and capital position continue to remain well in excess of all regulatory ratios and our projections. So minimal change in our profitability and limited exposure to movement in interest rates. But the market projected rate go up or down from that meeting in monthly average of 307 days of liquidity through 2023 and had 319 days as of December 31st, 2023. And these numbers reflect resiliency against short and medium-term market disruption.

就業績而言，2023 年第四季的獲利為 4,490 萬美元，即每股 4.10 美元，2023 年的獲利為 1.712 億美元，即每股 15.65 美元。這反映了兩位數的同比增長，這主要是由 2023 年第四季度創紀錄的淨有效利差 8,460 萬美元和全年 3.27 億美元推動的。利差年增率改善16 個基點至118 個基點，但截至年底，這主要是由於我們的低資本成本、我們的債務融資策略和先前的低利率環境以及我們重新部署過剩資本和較低利率的能力所推動的。將資金成本轉化為高收益資產。這一優勢因價差量持續增加的趨勢而進一步增強，這在我們的可再生能源和企業S&M 等新領域中很明顯，當利率在2020 年和2021 年處於歷史低點時，我們機會主義地籌集了資金，這減少了對我們的需求籌集更昂貴的首付和可贖回債務。在當前利率上升的環境下，我們繼續在流動性投資組合中防禦性地持有約 9 億美元的現金和其他短期工具，這不僅有助於我們抵禦潛在的市場混亂。我們的退出和高流動性資本在高名目利率環境中產生即時回報。雖然短期利率的上升為獲利帶來了好處。我們預計未來鑽機下降的下行空間有限，這是由於我們積極主動的股權資本配置策略，我們正在逐步調整和改變期限，以盡量減少資產負債表和獲利波動。具體來說，即使利率下降，我們預計在中期內仍能保留部分收益。為此，我們開始延長投資組合的期限。儘管存在宏觀阻力，我們仍然看到債務資本市場的強勁准入以及轉向優質投資的議程，這使我們能夠在新資產機會出現時為它們提供資金。我們的流動性和資本狀況繼續遠遠超過所有監管比率和我們的預測。我們的獲利能力變化很小，利率變動的風險也有限。但市場預計，自該次會議以來，到 2023 年流動性月均天數為 307 天，截至 2023 年 12 月 31 日為 319 天。這些數字反映了針對短期和中期市場混亂的彈性。

Turning to operating expenses. Our operating expenses increased by 19% year over year due to increased headcount, increased stock compensation and increased spending on software licenses and information technology initiatives, which included consulting to support growth and strategic initiatives. We concluded 2023 with 185 employee expenditures associated with a multiyear technology investment, which we've discussed before in our treasury and cash management systems are being executed against to enhance our trading hedging and reporting platforms. And this initiative has contributed significantly to the year-over-year increase in expenses. This modernization effort is expected to position us to more effectively defend against cyber and fraud threats and also allow us to scale our portfolio and diversify our product offering that are in alignment with our business and funding strategy. We also plan to continue to make investments in strategic focus areas such as renewable energy and these strong revenue contributors in 2023 and to continue to modernize our infrastructure, including our servicing and loan platform. We support our growth and strategic objectives despite the substantial increase in our expenses.

轉向營運費用。由於員工人數增加、股票報酬增加以及軟體許可和資訊技術計劃（其中包括支援成長和策略計劃的諮詢）支出增加，我們的營運費用年增 19%。截至 2023 年，我們有 185 名員工支出與多年技術投資相關，我們之前在我們的財務和現金管理系統中討論過這些支出，我們正在執行這些支出，以增強我們的交易對沖和報告平台。這項舉措對費用年增率做出了重大貢獻。這項現代化工作預計將使我們能夠更有效地防禦網路和詐欺威脅，並使我們能夠擴大我們的投資組合並使我們的產品供應多樣化，以符合我們的業務和融資策略。我們還計劃在 2023 年繼續對再生能源和這些強大的收入貢獻者等戰略重點領域進行投資，並繼續實現我們的基礎設施現代化，包括我們的服務和貸款平台。儘管我們的開支大幅增加，但我們仍支持我們的成長和策略目標。

Year-over-year operating efficiency held at 27% at year end, and this is below our long-term strategic plan target of 30%. This result is a testament to our accretive revenue strategy as well as a substantial reduction in our cost of funds, driven by our disciplined approach to raising capital and managing balance sheet volatility. We'll continue to monitor our efficiency ratio and manage it such that we expect to remain at or below long-run average of 30%. However, as we make investments in our loan infrastructure and funding platform and continue to innovate our loan processes using technology to accelerate growth, we may see some temporary increases that could result in the efficiency ratio rising above the 30% level.

截至年底，營運效率年增 27%，低於我們 30% 的長期策略計畫目標。這一結果證明了我們的收入成長策略，以及在我們籌集資金和管理資產負債表波動的嚴格方法的推動下，我們的資金成本大幅降低。我們將繼續監控我們的效率比率並對其進行管理，以確保我們的效率保持在或低於 30% 的長期平均值。然而，隨著我們對貸款基礎設施和融資平台進行投資，並繼續利用技術創新貸款流程以加速成長，我們可能會看到一些暫時的成長，導致效率比率上升至 30% 以上。

Our credit profile continues to be very strong in aggregate, despite the economic headwinds, 90 day delinquencies were $35 million of 12 basis points for the entire portfolio, and this reflects a decrease both sequentially and year over year. As of December 31st, 2023, the total allowance for losses was $18.3 million, and this reflects a $1.1 million provision compared to year-end 2022. And this is primarily due to a single telecommunications loan that was downgraded to substandard during the year. Provision was partially offset Finally, related to a single collateral dependent agricultural storage and processing loans that's fully paid off during the year. We ended the year with no charge-offs.

儘管存在經濟逆風，但我們的信用狀況總體上仍然非常強勁，整個投資組合的 90 天拖欠額為 3500 萬美元（共 12 個基點），這反映出環比和同比的下降。截至 2023 年 12 月 31 日，損失準備金總額為 1,830 萬美元，與 2022 年底相比，撥備金額為 110 萬美元。這主要是由於年內有一筆電信貸款被降級為次級。撥備被部分抵銷 最後，與年內全額還清的依賴單一抵押品的農業儲存和加工貸款有關。我們在這一年結束時沒有沖銷。

So let's turn now to capital. Farmer Mac's $1.5 billion of core capital as of December 31, 2023, exceeded our statutory requirement by $589 million or 68%. Core capital increased from year end 2022, primarily due to an increase in retained earnings, which reflects a substantial improvement in both the quantity and the quality of our activity. And this is reflected in our Tier one capital ratio, which improved to 15.4%. Our consistent earning strongly support $0.30 per share increase in our quarterly common stock dividend, and we are very pleased that we can offer this return to our shareholders while maintaining strong capital ratio to defend our balance sheet and also fueling our growth objective. We will continue to invest significant resources to enhance our infrastructure and engage with our customers and investor support a robust and liquid market for a fund securitization product securitizations have many beneficial aspect for funding. It allows us to diversify our funding, enhance and optimize the balance sheet through the efficient deployment of capital, and it can enable a growth strategy by targeting new asset opportunities into a conduit. While we are closely monitoring the changing market dynamics, we fully expect to return to the market in the first half of 2024 with another similar fund securitization transaction as the previous three transactions. As we assess our strategic objectives for the program. We plan to transform what has been a financing strategy to start to offer this as a vehicle for capital efficiency and growth for our counterparts.

現在讓我們轉向資本。截至 2023 年 12 月 31 日，Farmer Mac 的核心資本為 15 億美元，超出我們的法定要求 5.89 億美元，即 68%。自 2022 年底以來，核心資本有所增加，主要是由於留存收益的增加，這反映出我們活動的數量和品質都有了實質改善。這反映在我們的一級資本比率上，該比率提高至 15.4%。我們的持續獲利有力地支持了我們季度普通股股息每股增加 0.30 美元，我們很高興能夠為股東提供這種回報，同時保持強勁的資本比率以捍衛我們的資產負債表並推動我們的成長目標。我們將繼續投入大量資源來增強我們的基礎設施，並與我們的客戶和投資者合作，為基金證券化產品提供一個強大且流動性強的市場，證券化對融資有許多有利的方面。它使我們能夠實現資金多元化，透過有效的資本部署來增強和優化資產負債表，並且可以透過將新的資產機會納入管道來實現成長策略。在我們密切關注不斷變化的市場動態的同時，我們完全預計將在 2024 年上半年重返市場，並完成另一筆與前三筆交易類似的基金證券化交易。當我們評估該計劃的策略目標。我們計劃改變融資策略，開始將其作為提高同行資本效率和成長的工具。

In summary, our entire team delivered exceptionally good quarterly results while fulfilling several important strategic and revenue objectives. We deliver on our key metrics that we report to you on each call, we had record core earnings and continued strong credit performance. And all of this resulted in a 19% return on equity, while holding the efficiency ratio below a 30% target as the interest rate environment moderates, we remain optimistic that the natural hedges within our business and balance sheet should allow for a more sustainable long-run average in net effective spread.

總之，我們整個團隊在實現幾個重要的策略和收入目標的同時，交付了非常好的季度表現。我們提供每次通話時向您報告的關鍵指標，我們擁有創紀錄的核心收益和持續強勁的信用表現。所有這些帶來了19% 的股本回報率，同時隨著利率環境的緩和，效率比率保持在30% 以下的目標，我們仍然樂觀地認為，我們業務和資產負債表中的自然對沖應該能夠實現更可持續的長期發展。- 淨有效利差的平均值。

Looking ahead to 2024. We remain well positioned and more optimistic than ever to deliver on our long-term strategic plan objectives.

展望 2024 年。我們仍然處於有利地位，並且比以往任何時候都更加樂觀地實現我們的長期策略計劃目標。

And with that, Brad, let me turn it back.

布拉德，讓我把它轉回來。

Yes, thank you, Aparna. We are extremely proud of our financial results for 2023 as apparent and saying, we believe that we're well positioned heading into 2024 with strong liquidity and capital levels, a diversified business mix, highly effective risk management practices and an expanded team of dedicated professionals. We're very optimistic about the future, and we'll maintain our singular focus on fulfilling our mission efficiently and innovatively as we navigate the BI backdrop of broader market uncertainty attributable to interest rates, regulation and policy change. This is how we believe we can continue to differentiate ourselves and deliver value to our customers and borrowers in rural America.

是的，謝謝你，阿帕娜。我們對2023 年的財務表現感到非常自豪，並表示，我們相信，憑藉強大的流動性和資本水平、多元化的業務組合、高效的風險管理實踐以及擴大的敬業專業團隊，我們在進入2024 年時處於有利地位。我們對未來非常樂觀，當我們應對利率、監管和政策變化導致的更廣泛市場不確定性的商業智慧背景時，我們將繼續專注於高效和創新地履行我們的使命。我們相信，透過這種方式，我們能夠繼續脫穎而出，為美國農村地區的客戶和借款人提供價值。

And now, operator, I'd like to see if we have any questions from anyone on the line with us today.

現在，接線員，我想看看今天在線上與我們聯繫的人是否有任何問題。

Bill Ryan, Seaport Research.

比爾‧瑞安，海港研究中心。

Good morning and congratulations on your 2023 results. And question on the margin, specifically, the net effective spread on renewable energy and utilities both improved quarter over quarter renewable energy quite a bit, I believe, Brad, last quarter you talked about maybe some pricing strategies that were being implemented to maybe enhance so the yields. Could you talk about what the drivers of the margin in the quarter was or the NES in those two business lines?

早安，恭喜您 2023 年的成績。關於邊際問題，具體來說，再生能源和公用事業的淨有效利差均比上季再生能源有所改善，我相信，布拉德，上個季度您談到了可能正在實施的一些定價策略，以提高再生能源的利用率。產量。您能否談談本季利潤率或這兩個業務線的 NES 的驅動因素是什麼？

Hey, Bill, good morning and yes, thanks very much. We also have Zack Carpenter on some ask Zach to provide you with a little additional color. But I believe on prior calls, I talked about how over the last few years we have we really tried to move our pricing from being pricing that really achieved the lowest acceptable threshold from Farmer Mac to pricing that reflect more of the market. And that's resulted in more variation between business segments and also with within deals within the business segments. So that's part of it. We also are becoming better established in the markets and have a growing reputation among market players, which allows them to see us as a premium player. And that puts us in a position of a bit better negotiating position as well. But long term is active really kind of flushes out for you in more detail.

嘿，比爾，早上好，是的，非常感謝。我們還有紮克·卡彭特（Zack Carpenter）要求扎克為您提供一些額外的顏色。但我相信在之前的電話會議中，我談到了過去幾年我們如何真正嘗試將我們的定價從真正達到 Farmer Mac 可接受的最低門檻的定價轉變為反映更多市場的定價。這導致業務部門之間以及業務部門內的交易之間存在更多差異。這就是其中的一部分。我們在市場上的地位也越來越高，在市場參與者中的聲譽也越來越高，這使他們將我們視為優質參與者。這也使我們處於更好的談判地位。但長期活躍確實會為你帶來更多細節。

Yes, happy to Brad. And they still know Brad touched on most of the key attributes. I'd highlight three main things I'm focused on really utilities. Just remember, the telecommunications portfolio is included in that segment. That sector by itself has much higher net effective spread, just given the risk profile of those transactions and again in that space. We're really focused on pricing to market and making sure that the transactions that we're bringing on board on reflect the risk that we have in those I think the second is more of a market construct in terms of the volatility we've seen what that created in 2023 was kind of a widening of credit spreads across and I think most sectors of Farmer Mac. And so as we execute in all three of the spaces portfolios, telco, utilities and renewable energy, we saw a widening of credit spreads in 2023, which also resulted in an increase in net effective spread.

是的，布拉德很高興。他們仍然知道布拉德觸及了大多數關鍵屬性。我想強調我真正關注的三件主要事情。請記住，電信產品組合包含在該細分市場中。考慮到這些交易的風險狀況以及該領域的風險狀況，該行業本身的淨有效利差要高得多。我們真正關注的是市場定價，並確保我們進行的交易反映了我們所面臨的風險，我認為第二個更多的是我們所看到的波動性方面的市場結構2023 年造成的信貸利差擴大，我認為是Farmer Mac 的大部分行業。因此，當我們在電信、公用事業和再生能源這三個空間投資組合中執行時，我們看到 2023 年信貸利差擴大，這也導致淨有效利差增加。

And the last thing I would note is just specifically focused to renewable energy. You know, our primary target and focus is really in that middle market type transactions and not necessarily the largest transactions in the market. And that by itself has focused us more on a more accretive net effective spread than some of the other transactions. So I think the combination of those three things is really what caused an accretive net effective spread in the rural infrastructure space.

我要指出的最後一件事是特別關注再生能源。您知道，我們的主要目標和重點實際上是中間市場類型的交易，而不一定是市場上最大的交易。與其他一些交易相比，這本身就讓我們更加關注更具增值性的淨有效利差。因此，我認為這三件事的結合確實導致了農村基礎設施領域淨有效傳播的增加。

Okay. And one follow-up also related to the net effective spread. But in terms of portfolio repricing, we've obviously been in a fairly stable interest rate environment. I think last quarter by us expecting a more dramatic reduction in market interest rates. And we talked about the overall margin maybe being a little bit under pressure, but kind of where we're at right now.

好的。一項後續行動也與淨有效利差有關。但就投資組合重新定價而言，我們顯然處於相當穩定的利率環境中。我認為上個季度我們預期市場利率會出現更大幅度的下降。我們談到整體利潤率可能有點面臨壓力，但這就是我們現在所處的情況。

You feel it doesn't look like rates are going to go down nearly as much as the portfolio continues to reprice or are we kind of looking more, let's just say everything held constant at a stable type and yes, not adjusted for mix or anything or with ongoing repricing of the existing portfolio. Is there some potential upside to the core margin?

你覺得利率看起來不會像投資組合繼續重新定價一樣下降，或者我們是否會尋找更多，讓我們說一切都保持在穩定類型不變，是的，沒有針對混合或任何東西進行調整或對現有投資組合進行持續重新定價。核心利潤率是否有潛在的上升空間？

Well, from an asset liability management on those portfolio. The asset liability side are quite well matched. And so unlike banks, when we have movement in rates, for example, increase in deposit costs it doesn't put a lot of pressure on us. But in terms of the repricing of the existing portfolio, that really goes to a prepayment question stack, why don't you provide some insight into what's happening with our prepayments as well as the new UP original origination opportunity.

好吧，來自這些投資組合的資產負債管理。資產負債端相當相符。因此，與銀行不同的是，當我們的利率改變時，例如存款成本的增加，它不會給我們帶來很大的壓力。但就現有投資組合的重新定價而言，這實際上涉及預付款問題堆疊，為什麼您不提供一些有關我們的預付款以及新的 UP 原始發起機會的情況的見解。

Yes, absolutely. And specifically in the farm and ranch segment, rates still remain high comparatively to the last 10 to 15 years. So our prepayments have remained historically low, and we continue to expect that to take place at least for the foreseeable future and into 2024 fast. Thus, the new volume that we bring on is not making up for lost refinancing volume. But again, that would lead us to think that spreads will be relatively stable in the Farm & Ranch line of business.

是的，一點沒錯。特別是在農場和牧場領域，與過去 10 至 15 年相比，利率仍保持在較高水準。因此，我們的預付款項仍處於歷史低點，我們仍然預計這種情況至少在可預見的未來會發生，並很快持續到 2024 年。因此，我們帶來的新融資量並不能彌補再融資量的損失。但同樣，這會讓我們認為農場和牧場業務的利差將相對穩定。

The only other thing I would highlight in this directly goes on the asset side of the book as it pertains to net effective spread is we have seen a pretty significant tightening of credit spreads across the spectrum. I'm heading into 2024. And so as we look at kind of our other products and segments. We'll take that into consideration as we look to deploy more capital. But the again, the volatility in the market kind of moves the other way I'm starting in 2024 and so that that could impact certain refinancing activity in some of the other segments. But in our core farm and ranch and corporate ag segment, I think we're pretty confident that it's going to be relatively stable, at least for the foreseeable future.

我在這本書中直接強調的另一件事是與淨有效利差有關的資產方面，我們已經看到整個範圍內的信用利差相當顯著收緊。我即將進入 2024 年。當我們審視我們的其他產品和細分市場時也是如此。當我們尋求部署更多資本時，我們會考慮到這一點。但話又說回來，從 2024 年開始，市場的波動性會朝著相反的方向發展，因此這可能會影響其他一些領域的某些再融資活動。但在我們的核心農場、牧場和企業農業領域，我認為我們非常有信心它會相對穩定，至少在可預見的未來是如此。

Bose George, KBW.

博斯·喬治，KBW。

Just wanted to follow up on the spread question. If the Fed does cut rates in the back half of the year is the impact mainly on the treasury function just with your cash there? And then in terms of the hedges that you discussed, is it really kind of to offset the impact on that part of the of the liability structure?

只是想跟進傳播問題。如果聯準會在下半年確實降息，影響主要是對你的現金庫的職能嗎？那麼就您討論的對沖而言，它真的可以抵消對負債結構那部分的影響嗎？

Yes, I think we have commented up both on the in -- Good morning. I think we've commented on the relative stability of spreads are around our loan portfolio. So part of why didn't you? And since we do have a very large investment liquidity portfolios, why don't you provide some insight into how rates would impact that?

是的，我想我們已經對“早上好”發表了評論。我認為我們已經評論了我們貸款組合利差的相對穩定性。那你為什麼不呢？既然我們確實擁有非常龐大的投資流動性投資組合，為什麼您不提供一些關於利率將如何影響的見解呢？

Yes, absolutely. And good morning, everyone. Thank you both for your question. Let me just comment on that briefly. You know, as we've highlighted, we manage our books such that we have at little to minimal volatility whether rates go up or down more specifically, as you think about our investment portfolio, something that we've started to do and we actually put in place in the fourth quarter of last year is what I would call a laddering strategy with respect to our duration.

是的，一點沒錯。大家早安。謝謝兩位的提問。讓我簡單評論一下。你知道，正如我們所強調的，我們管理我們的帳簿，以便我們的波動性很小，無論利率上升還是下降，更具體地說，當你考慮我們的投資組合時，我們已經開始這樣做，而且我們實際上去年第四季實施的就是我所說的關於我們的持續時間的階梯戰略。

So what that really means is that as we look at this $1 billion-plus of what I would call relatively short term investments are essentially sitting in overnight money, which has been very, very accretive. We've taken aspects of portions of those and really very systematically extended them over a two, three 5-year horizon. And what that will have the effect of doing is in the short run, if the Fed were to continue to raise rates, we'd be giving up that incremental spread that we would have gotten if we hadn't actually extended out. But what it does do is it positions us extremely well. As you noted in the back half of the year where there is an anticipation that the Fed might start to lower interest rates, it's going to keep us at a point that it will be quite steady. And what that means is that it will not create a dramatic amount of volatility in our net effective spread, and it will actually lock in a lot of the benefits that we have seen over 2023 that has come from having raised extremely accretive capital at a very low interest rate environments that have continued to reprice. We've essentially locked in a vast amount of those benefits by extending our duration in what we call an equity allocation strategy. So I hope that helps, but we don't anticipate to see any volatility on minimal volatility as a result of repricing down of interest rates as it pertains to our liability side of the house.

所以這真正的意思是，當我們看到這 10 億美元以上的我稱之為相對短期的投資基本上都是隔夜資金，這是非常非常增值的。我們已經對其中的部分內容進行了研究，並非常系統地將它們擴展到了兩到三個五年的範圍內。從短期來看，這將產生的影響是，如果聯準會繼續升息，我們將放棄如果我們沒有實際延長利率就會得到的增量利差。但它確實讓我們處於非常有利的位置。正如您在今年下半年指出的那樣，人們預計聯準會可能會開始降低利率，這將使我們保持在相當穩定的水平。這意味著它不會在我們的淨有效利差中造成巨大的波動，而且它實際上會鎖定我們在2023 年看到的許多好處，這些好處來自於以非常高的速度籌集了極其增值的資本。低利率環境持續重新定價。透過延長我們所謂的股權分配策略的期限，我們基本上已經鎖定了大量的收益。因此，我希望這會有所幫助，但我們預計不會因利率重新定價而導致最小波動性出現任何波動，因為這與我們的負債方有關。

And then you heard from Pat, just in terms of how we plan to manage our asset side of the house. But these are some of the natural hedges that we have within our business model where we tend to benefit and we tried to manage our volatility whether interest rates go up or down.

然後你聽到帕特的來信，談到我們計劃如何管理我們的資產方面。但這些是我們商業模式中的一些自然對沖，我們往往會從中受益，無論利率上升或下降，我們都試圖管理我們的波動性。

And then can you just talk about the possibility or the outlook for generating volumes of some of the other farm credit system banks that you don't work with or you're less active with at the moment?

然後，您能否談談與您沒有合作或目前不太活躍的其他一些農業信貸系統銀行產生交易量的可能性或前景？

I'm sure I think we've previously mentioned that and our relationship with Farm Credit System, banks and associations is very important to our farmer. We have remarkably common missions and we are already doing business with them. Couple of the banks and a number of associations. I'll turn to Zack to give you more color on our outreach, but it remains a key area of high focus, and our expectation is that over the next couple of years, we will find new ways of doing more types of business with more Farm Credit associations and banks, but maybe you could offer some specifics on where we are with the stepwise, for example, and some purchased participations.

我相信我們之前已經提到過這一點，我們與農業信貸系統、銀行和協會的關係對我們的農民來說非常重要。我們有著非常共同的使命，我們已經與他們開展業務。幾家銀行和一些協會。我將請扎克為您提供有關我們外展的更多信息，但這仍然是高度關注的關鍵領域，我們的期望是，在未來幾年中，我們將找到新的方式來開展更多類型的業務，並提供更多服務。農業信貸協會和銀行，但也許您可以提供一些具體信息，例如我們在逐步實施方面的情況，以及一些購買的參與。

Yes, absolutely. The focus on our relationship, the Farm Credit System is very strong right now. We're engaging across many different banks and associations. About 90% of our purchase commitments. Long-term standby purchase commitment product is supporting the system, and we'll continue to invest in that product product as certain institutions find a holder concentration limits.

是的，一點沒錯。重點關注我們的關係，農業信貸體系現在非常強大。我們正在與許多不同的銀行和協會合作。大約 90% 是我們的採購承諾。長期備用購買承諾產品正在支撐該系統，隨著某些機構發現持有者集中度受到限制，我們將繼續投資該產品。

The one thing I would highlight on a lot of the transaction growth, specifically in corporate and finance telecommunications is in conjunction with farm credit system institutions for either partnering in transactions where Farm Credit entity has included Farmer Mac of secondary market. Our telecommunications portfolio is predominantly in the primary space done with CoBank, one of the largest entities in the system. We continue to invest in outreach across the system, both banks and associations. And so we're very happy with where we've evolved in our relationship with the system and frankly, given the growth and focus we have in some of our new areas of new portfolios, we believe we'll have more opportunities to support the system in 2024 and beyond.

我要強調的一件事是，大量交易成長，特別是在企業和金融電信領域，是與農業信貸系統機構合作，在交易中進行合作，其中農業信貸實體包括二級市場的 Farmer Mac。我們的電信投資組合主要集中在與 CoBank 合作的主要領域，CoBank 是系統中最大的實體之一。我們繼續投資於整個系統的外展活動，包括銀行和協會。因此，我們對我們與系統關係的發展感到非常滿意，坦白說，考慮到我們在新投資組合的一些新領域的成長和重點，我們相信我們將有更多的機會來支持2024 年及以後的系統。

Gary Gordon.

加里·戈登.

Two questions. One small one, the Utell I just focused on the utilities margin in this release and it's about 40 basis points well below your other business units. Why is it so low or why isn't this business repriced or are there other benefits that I'm missing.

兩個問題。其中一個小例子是 Utell，我在此版本中只關注公用事業利潤率，它大約比其他業務部門低 40 個基點。為什麼它這麼低，或者為什麼這個業務沒有重新定價，或者我​​缺少其他好處。

Yes, hey, Gary, thank you for joining us today. A couple of things. One is that it's true that the way we measure that our margin associated with that portfolio does show a small level, but keep in mind a couple of things. One, but many of the borrowers in that portfolio are investment grade and some of them are even high investment grade. So we are approach pricing appropriately, but we believe we can also keep in mind if you look at kind of where that's been trending over the last couple of years, it's been trending in a positive direction. It started even lower.

是的，嘿，加里，謝謝你今天加入我們。有幾件事。一是，我們衡量與該投資組合相關的利潤的方式確實顯示出較小的水平，但請記住一些事情。一，但該投資組合中的許多藉款人都是投資等級的，其中一些甚至是高投資等級的。因此，我們正在適當地定價，但我們相信，如果你看看過去幾年的趨勢，我們也可以記住，它一直在朝著積極的方向發展。它開始甚至更低。

And so some of the efforts that we mentioned at the beginning of the call to price more to market as an example, are reflected even in that 40 basis points. And third, those that are the lowest margin are absolutely essential parts of the infrastructure of rural America and at the end of the day, the rural electric cooperatives are owned by farmers and rural rural Americans. The generating transmission electric co-op is owned by Rural Electric associations that it becomes very, very mission centric for us to help them and whether we're helping them through market priced Farm & Ranch loan purchase or helping them through a market price and Rural Utility, rural electric cooperative loan purchase. It's the benefit is ending up in the same place.

因此，我們在呼籲提高市場價格的一開始提到的一些努力甚至在這 40 個基點中得到了體現。第三，那些利潤率最低的公司絕對是美國農村基礎設施的重要組成部分，歸根究底，農村電力合作社是由農民和美國農村擁有。發電輸電合作社由農村電力協會擁有，我們幫助他們變得非常非常以使命為中心，無論我們是透過市場價格的農場和牧場貸款購買來幫助他們，還是透過市場價格和農村電力幫助他們公用事業、農電合作貸款購電。這樣做的好處是最終會出現在同一個地方。

The final point I'd make about that is that when you think about that portfolio, we've had no charge-offs we've actually had no delinquencies ever. And that's also reflective of the fact that the capital consumption, the equity capital consumption for that portfolio is actually very low still when we do adjust for a return on on capital. Tom, those numbers look actually pretty good.

我要說的最後一點是，當你考慮該投資組合時，我們沒有沖銷，實際上也沒有拖欠。這也反映出這樣一個事實：當我們對資本報酬率進行調整時，該投資組合的資本消耗、股權資本消耗實際上仍然非常低。湯姆，這些數字看起來其實相當不錯。

Good. Second question is on, so the implications of this large dividend increase by the way. So you've talked about a 35% payout over the long run. So a [$5.60] dividend implies $16 in earnings. Now you're not getting to 65 -- $16 in earnings with a traditional target for your spread, which is about 95 basis points. Is it safe to assume that you would consider your normal or let's say, for the foreseeable future, BRAD that reasonable to talk about a materially higher number?

好的。第二個問題是，順便說一下，大幅增加股利的影響。所以你談到了從長遠來看 35% 的支付率。因此 [5.60 美元] 股息意味著 16 美元的收益。現在，您的收益還沒有達到 65 - 16 美元，而傳統的利差目標約為 9​​5 個基點。是否可以安全地假設您會考慮您的正常情況，或者說，在可預見的未來，布拉德談論一個實質更高的數字是合理的？

Yes. I mean, we're not going to provide content on that, but a couple of a couple of comments. One is that that 95 basis point NES is a As Zach highlighted and talking about pricing pressures and asset liability management strategy over the next one to two year horizon. We don't think we're going to see that 95 basis points at all. We may see a single digit softening, but certainly not 95 basis points The second thing that I would mention about that is that during the call, I talked about regulatory uncertainty, talked about legislative uncertainty. We're going into a year 2024, but we are extremely well positioned, but we have a farm bill that should have been done at the end of last year. That was not hopefully it'll get done this year that it brings a bit of uncertainty to some of the underlying fundamentals of American agriculture. We want to see it passed. We also have a new Basel of regulatory environment, which may have some implications for capital. And so while we are very, very I'm excited about the opportunities that we see the business opportunities and extremely pleased with the soundness of Farmer Mac and that uncertain those uncertainties just inject a little bit of a note of caution into our decision-making process as it relates to dividend so on, we landed at a place that we thought really reflected our future growth potential that uncertainty that I just discussed, as well as something that rewards our shareholders for sticking with us in a very, very handsome way and as you know, it's a balancing act.

是的。我的意思是，我們不會提供相關內容，而是提供一些評論。一是 95 個基點 NES 是 Zach 強調的，並談到未來一到兩年的定價壓力和資產負債管理策略。我們認為根本不會看到 95 個基點。我們可能會看到個位數的疲軟，但肯定不會是95 個基點。我要提到的第二件事是，在電話會議期間，我談到了監管不確定性，談到了立法不確定性。我們即將進入 2024 年，但我們處於非常有利的位置，但我們有一項本應在去年年底完成的農業法案。今年不太可能實現這一目標，因為它為美國農業的一些基本面帶來了一些不確定性。我們希望看到它過去。我們還有新的巴塞爾監管環境，可能會對資本產生一些影響。因此，雖然我們非常非常興奮，但我們看到了商機，並對 Farmer Mac 的穩健性感到非常滿意，這些不確定因素只是為我們的決策注入了一點謹慎與股息等相關的流程，我們認為真正反映了我們未來的成長潛力，即我剛才討論的不確定性，以及獎勵我們的股東以非常非常可觀的方式堅持我們的東西，如您所知，這是一種平衡行為。

Brad, if I might just add an additional point, and that has to do with what we've mentioned around the quality as well as the quantity of capital, Gary, where we want to head is really to have a capital stack skew more heavily towards retained earnings that come from organic growth and maintaining our credit quality. It reduces the need for us to go into the preferred markets as we have done. It's proven very, very beneficial to us, but we do have a scenario where we have some expensive preferreds that could be repricing and by really making sure that we're maintaining our capital base such that we're skewing more towards quality of capital with retained earnings. It gives us more degrees of freedom in terms of letting some of those expensive preferreds go and not have to really worry about going into the market at a time that might not be accretive for us. So it's really just a balancing act for us in terms of managing our capital stack as well as fueling our balance sheet for additional growth.

布拉德，如果我可以補充一點的話，這與我們提到的資本質量和數量有關，加里，我們想要的方向實際上是讓資本堆疊傾斜得更嚴重實現來自有機增長和維持信用質量的留存收益。它減少了我們像以前一樣進入首選市場的需要。事實證明，這對我們非常非常有利，但我們確實有一種情況，我們有一些昂貴的優先股，可以重新定價，並透過真正確保我們維持我們的資本基礎，以便我們更傾向於資本品質留存收益。它給了我們更多的自由度，讓我們可以放棄一些昂貴的優先股，而不必真正擔心在可能不會為我們帶來增值的時候進入市場。因此，這對我們來說實際上只是一種平衡行為，既管理我們的資本堆疊，也推動我們的資產負債表實現額外成長。

Brendan McCarty, Sidoti.

布倫丹·麥卡蒂，西多蒂。

Hey, good morning, everybody, and thanks for taking my questions. Just wanted to start off, looking at the wholesale financing business. I understand the value proposition has really increased for institutional count counterparties in the elevated interest rate environment. But just wondering if you can expand on where the benefits have flowed through on the segment level?

嘿，大家早上好，感謝您回答我的問題。只是想開始研究批發融資業務。據我所知，在高利率環境下，機構數量交易對手的價值主張確實增加。但只是想知道您是否可以擴展細分市場層面的收益流向？

And I'll ask Jack Zack to give you some of some specific color on that. But just generally speaking, as you noted and the higher interest rate environment. And frankly, the absence of Federal Reserve Bank support of liquidity facilities for financial institutions has created more of a comparative competitive advantage for us as we noted in our comments, and that's driving new opportunities. Some of that opportunities with customers we had in the past and we let go because we didn't like the pricing, but some of it is is new opportunity as well. But vacuum, I might just add kind of explain where this is all coming from.

我會請傑克扎克給你一些具體的顏色。但一般來說，正如您所指出的，利率環境較高。坦白說，正如我們在評論中指出的那樣，聯準會缺乏對金融機構流動性便利的支持，為我們創造了更多的比較競爭優勢，這正在帶來新的機會。我們過去擁有一些與客戶合作的機會，但由於我們不喜歡定價而放棄了，但其中一些也是新的機會。但是真空，我可能只是添加一些解釋，這一切都是從哪裡來的。

Yes, happy to not reiterate a lot of what Brad said, but I think one of the key drivers is clearing the volatility in the market and a lot of these large corporate institutional counterparties are looking to just diversify in all the different funding sources they have. If you're in the public bond market, you see significant increase in GAAP and other credit spreads, which we did last year. Farmer Mac and are secured against facility is a relatively comparative and better advantage to those counterparties.

是的，很高興沒有重申布拉德所說的很多內容，但我認為關鍵驅動因素之一是消除市場的波動，並且許多大型企業機構交易對手正在尋求多元化他們擁有的所有不同的資金來源。如果你在公共債券市場，你會發現公認會計原則和其他信用利差顯著增加，就像我們去年所做的那樣。Farmer Mac 和擔保設施對於這些交易對手來說是相對比較和更好的優勢。

On to your question on where you see these benefits in our segment reporting, you're predominately going to CM in advantage within the farm and ranch segment as well as in the Rural Utility segment. So those are two large corporate institutional counterparty line items. You can see the significant growth year over year, especially in rural utilities as well as in farm and ranch. And so that's generally where we saw, at least in 2023, the growth opportunity and the increase in net effective spread that rolls up into those segments. And then heading into 2024, we anticipate a broader discussion with numerous other counterparties in terms of the benefits we could provide given the aforementioned comments.

關於您在我們的分部報告中在哪裡看到這些好處的問題，您主要會選擇 CM 在農場和牧場分部以及農村公用事業分部中的優勢。這是兩個大型企業機構交易對手行項目。您可以看到逐年顯著的成長，特別是在農村公用事業以及農場和牧場方面。因此，至少在 2023 年，我們通常會看到這些細分市場的成長機會和淨有效利差的增加。然後進入 2024 年，鑑於上述評論，我們預計將與眾多其他交易對手就我們可以提供的好處進行更廣泛的討論。

Brendon. One other thing I'd just like to add to this is that there's a strategic aspect of this as well because when we have an advantage facility. We are evaluating the underlying collateral that's been pledged and that underlying collateral are typically loans that as an alternative we'd like to own, but we'd like to purchase. And I think over the last six to nine months, we've probably been able to initiate more discussions with some of those advantaged counterparties about their strategic objectives and weather and a sale for them a purchase by us of some of those underlying loans fits their strategic objectives better and too early to say that that's going to yield results. But we're encouraged that we're engaged at such a strategic thought level with so many of these counterparties and are optimistic that at some point in the future, we will show that we can provide another source of liquidity to them through a different type facility alone purchase rather than a ADDvantage facility.

布倫登.我想補充的另一件事是，這也有一個戰略方面，因為當我們擁有優勢設施時。我們正在評估已質押的基礎抵押品，該基礎抵押品通常是貸款，作為我們想要擁有但我們想要購買的替代方案。我認為在過去的六到九個月裡，我們可能已經能夠與一些優勢交易對手就他們的戰略目標和天氣進行更多討論，並為他們出售我們購買的一些符合他們需求的基礎貸款。戰略目標更好，但現在說這會產生結果還為時過早。但我們感到鼓舞的是，我們與如此多的交易對手進行瞭如此高的戰略思維水平，並且樂觀地認為，在未來的某個時候，我們將表明我們可以通過不同類型的方式向他們提供另一種流動性來源單獨購買設施而不是 ADDvantage 設施。

Great. Great. That's very helpful. And I know you mentioned a big part of that story has been business development efforts and branding and just kind of your marketing efforts as well. Can you specify your what exactly has kind of driven that diversification of counterparties?

偉大的。偉大的。這非常有幫助。我知道你提到這個故事的很大一部分是業務發展努力和品牌推廣以及你的行銷努力。您能否具體說明到底是什麼推動了交易對手的多元化？

Well, let me just jump in and add, Zach is modest, but it is all of those things, but it absolutely begins with housing, high quality people with relationships and experience that it motivates those counterparties to engage in these discussions. And we have hired some absolute Zack has really hard some of absolute outstanding people over the last couple of years that are enabling us to do that.

好吧，讓我插話補充一下，扎克很謙虛，但所有這些都是如此，但它絕對始於住房、具有人際關係和經驗的高素質人員，這激勵了那些交易對手參與這些討論。我們聘請了一些絕對的紮克在過去幾年中確實努力工作了一些絕對傑出的人，使我們能夠做到這一點。

Got it. Got it. And kind of switching gears here to the outlook on prepayment risk. I understand should we see a potential decline in rates in the back half of the year. Obviously, I assume prepayments will pick up in the core farm and ranch business, but can you touch on the prepayment outlook for the other segments. I know prepayment risk is very low in the Rural Utility segment, but maybe you can expand on the other business lines.

知道了。知道了。以及提前還款風險前景的轉變。我理解今年下半年利率是否可能下降。顯然，我認為核心農場和牧場業務的預付款將會增加，但您能否談談其他細分市場的預付款前景。我知道農村公用事業領域的預付款風險非常低，但也許您可以擴展到其他業務領域。

Yes, Zach, can you just run through the other segments.

是的，扎克，你能簡單介紹一下其他部分嗎？

Yeah. Happy to. You're spot on and the rural infrastructure side of the house, we don't anticipate much if any prepayment risk, maybe some modest some risk in the telecommunications portfolio. Generally speaking, those are all floating rate, but those are going to turn on a weighted average life of three to four years anyways. But you know, the rate environment isn't going to really increase that in corporate and finance, but those are just lumpy transactions in general. So the prepayment concept, it really isn't on conducive in that segment.

是的。高興。在農村基礎設施方面，我們預計不會有太多預付款風險，也許電信投資組合中會有一些適度的風險。一般來說，這些都是浮動利率，但無論如何，這些都會以三到四年的加權平均壽命為基礎。但你知道，利率環境不會真正增加企業和金融領域的影響，但總的來說，這些交易只是不穩定的。因此，預付款概念在該領域確實不有利。

These are more M&A type transactions where you may get paid off or you could participate in a larger facility. So really, when you think about our overall portfolios or lines of business, really the prepayment component is akin to Farm & Ranch and USDA. And if we see some rate compression in the back half of the year, I think now as Aparna mentioned, we anticipate an increase in loan purchase, and we're kind of setting ourselves up to take advantage of a potential refinance opportunities.

這些都是更多的併購類型交易，您可能會獲得回報，或者您可以參與更大的設施。所以說真的，當你考慮到我們的整體投資組合或業務線時，預付款部分實際上類似於農場和牧場和美國農業部。如果我們在今年下半年看到一些利率壓縮，我認為現在正如阿帕納所提到的那樣，我們預計貸款購買量會增加，並且我們正在為利用潛在的再融資機會做好準備。

And remember, we've said this on prior quarters, a lot of our customers are community and regional banks are keeping those loans on the balance sheet to manage through a higher deposit payout environment. That being said, liquidity and capital efficiency is now becoming a more focus in the banking sector, which we believe as those loans kind of reprice on their balance sheet creates a enhanced opportunity for us, especially in Farm & Ranch and USDA to take a advantage on a rate decline scenario. So yes, probably more prepayment risk in Farm & Ranch and USDA, but we're more than confident that we'll make it up in new volume.

請記住，我們在前幾個季度已經說過，我們的許多客戶都是社區和地區銀行，它們將這些貸款保留在資產負債表上，以透過更高的存款支付環境進行管理。話雖這麼說，流動性和資本效率現在正成為銀行業更加關注的焦點，我們相信這些貸款在資產負債表上重新定價為我們創造了更多的機會，特別是在農場和牧場和美國農業部，以利用此優勢在利率下降的情況下。所以，是的，農場和牧場和美國農業部的提前付款風險可能更大，但我們非常有信心我們將在新的數量中彌補這一風險。

If I may just add one point as well, Brendan, you know, we are fairly agnostic in terms of prepayment risk, and this has to do with how we manage our balance sheet from a hedging standpoint. So something that we've noted before, we tend to layer in our callable as such that the fairly duration match as we look ahead and think about prepayment risk. So even if we were to have prepayments, it wouldn't necessarily affect our margins very substantially. So everything that that's a highlighted prepayment risk is low across the segments. But in addition to that, from a funding standpoint, we're extremely well hedged where we could simply call expensive debt and reprice that downwards such that we maintain a margin.

如果我還可以補充一點，布倫丹，你知道，我們對提前還款風險相當不可知，這與我們從對沖角度管理資產負債表的方式有關。因此，我們之前已經注意到，我們傾向於在可贖回中分層，以便在我們展望未來並考慮提前付款風險時，使相當的久期匹配。因此，即使我們有預付款，也不一定會對我們的利潤產生很大影響。因此，各個細分市場中突出的預付款風險都很低。但除此之外，從融資的角度來看，我們的對沖能力非常好，我們可以簡單地調用昂貴的債務並向下重新定價，以便我們保持利潤。

Understood. That's helpful. And one more question for me. Just on the farm economy as a whole, I know you mentioned your land values have moderately declined and farmer income or appear to be reverting more towards historical averages. But can you just kind of talk on your outlook for the farm economy and how impact Farmer Mac it is.

明白了。這很有幫助。還有一個問題想問我。就整個農業經濟而言，我知道您提到您的土地價值已適度下降，農民收入似乎正在更多地恢復到歷史平均水平。但您能談談您對農業經濟的展望以及它對 Farmer Mac 的影響嗎？

That's a big question because the decline in land does it actually is pretty isolated. We've been doing a lot of work on that are recently with permanent crops in California are one place where there have been headlines about modest decreases and those tend to be up almonds and other permanent crops where there are some not multiple sources of water where there may be some some pressure on water availability as well as the combination with low commodity prices.

這是一個大問題，因為土地的減少實際上是相當孤立的。我們最近在加州的永久性作物上做了很多工作，那裡有關於適度減少的頭條新聞，這些往往是杏仁和其他永久性作物，那裡沒有多種水源，水資源供應以及低商品價格可能會面臨一些壓力。

But we're not seeing it across-the-board. And as you know, our loan to current value on just about everything in our is extremely modest Well, most of that 50% on the portfolio as it stands. But yes, we're expected to see a softening in farm income, of course, as an aggregate number for the entire sector. And we are an organization with 17,000 borrowers each when one of them with their own situation. But input prices are generally us staying sticky and high, while commodity prices for major major crops have been softening.

但我們並沒有全面看到這一點。如您所知，我們對幾乎所有資產的當前價值的貸款都非常適度，其中大部分 50% 是在現有的投資組合中。但是，是的，我們預計整個行業的農業收入將會疲軟。我們是一個擁有 17,000 名借款人的組織，每個借款人都有自己的情況。但投入價格普遍維持高位，而主要農作物的大宗商品價格卻一直走軟。

And so in all, we're looking at projected net farm incomes for the sector again this next year that will be somewhere in the neighborhood of 20% less than that on kind of I was at the peak. The first thing that that will do is put a little it will cause some drawdown of liquidity of farmers have been holding a lot of liquidity, and it will cause some drawdown of that. We think that it may, especially if we have slightly lower interest rates later in the year. It'll start stimulating some additional borrowing activity.

總而言之，我們明年將再次考慮該行業的預計農場淨收入，該收入將比高峰時期低 20% 左右。首先要做的就是放一點，這將導致農民持有大量流動性，這將導致流動性的一些下降，這將導致流動性的一些下降。我們認為有可能，特別是如果今年稍後利率略有下降的話。它將開始刺激一些額外的借貸活動。

As Jack has mentioned, farm and ranch originations were slow at least through the first three quarters of 2023, a little bit of pickup in Q4, but that will cause some further pickup in the year in terms of other segments of the farm economy probably kicks that it keeps them to a bit more borrowing, which could benefit us. And we'll be continuing to apply the very, very disciplined credit standards that we have for many years here at Farmer Mac, so that we're continuing to make prudent credit decisions. So you put it all together and and that's probably a slight positive for Farmer Mac, even if it is a source of concern for our key constituents in rural America.

正如傑克所提到的，至少在 2023 年前三個季度，農場和牧場的起源緩慢，第四季度略有回升，但這將導致今年農業經濟其他領域的進一步回升，可能會有所改善這讓他們可以多藉一些錢，這對我們來說是有利的。我們將繼續採用 Farmer Mac 多年來採用的非常非常嚴格的信用標準，以便我們繼續做出審慎的信用決策。所以你把所有這些放在一起，這可能對 Farmer Mac 來說是一個輕微的積極影響，即使它是我們美國農村主要選民的擔憂來源。

DeForest Hinman, Bumbershoot Holdings.

德福雷斯特·欣曼 (DeForest Hinman)，Bumbershoot 控股公司。

Thanks for squeezing me in your kind of beating around the bush on the loan growth outlook. There are a lot of moving parts, but I mean, simplistically Farm & Ranch loans, high singles growth in 2021 thought 10% growth in 2022. 8% growth in 2023. Is it still in that ballpark? Or is it kind of the mid-single digit growth outlook for 2024 when we look at all these moving pieces as the first question.

感謝您對我對貸款成長前景的拐彎抹角。有很多變化的部分，但我的意思是，簡單地說，農場和牧場貸款、2021 年的高單身增長認為 2022 年增長 10%。2023 年增長 8%。還在那個球場嗎？或者，當我們將所有這些動態因素作為第一個問題時，這是否是 2024 年中個位數的成長前景？

Yes, I mean, we're not going to provide a precise forecast. But back to what I've tried to give a little bit color on that one.

是的，我的意思是，我們不會提供精確的預測。但回到我試著為這個問題增添一點色彩的話題。

Yes. I mean, I think the confluence of factors in the market is leading to us being more optimistic in loan purchase activity in farm and ranch than we were in 2023. I mean, I noted earlier a comment on the Regional Community Banking dynamic managing capital liquidity deposits. That's having a real impact on those institutions, which, as their loan portfolio reprices, we think creates a great opportunity for Farmer Mac, low prepayment speeds, again, solidifies the portfolio. And so we're able to take advantage of some of these dynamics. We're not making up any refinancings, lost some loss on our portfolio, limited supply of new land and farm incomes, as Brad has mentioned in the prior to prior question, it's going to come down. There's going to be stress in working capital, and I think there's going to be interest in tapping into that equity. So comparing year over year and stepping into 2024 as we made in our prepared comments, yes, I think we're more optimistic that there is a greater chance of enhanced growth in 2024 versus 2023. That being said, lots of things can change to be at the farm bill, be it a political year, be it interest rates. So it's hard to really pinpoint that. But I think we're stepping into more optimism than we were stepping into 2023.

是的。我的意思是，我認為市場因素的綜合作用導致我們對農場和牧場的貸款購買活動比 2023 年更樂觀。我的意思是，我之前註意到關於區域社區銀行動態管理資本流動性存款的評論。這對這些機構產生了真正的影響，隨著他們的貸款組合重新定價，我們認為這為 Farmer Mac 創造了一個很好的機會，低預付款速度再次鞏固了投資組合。因此我們能夠利用其中一些動力。我們不會彌補任何再融資，我們的投資組合損失了一些損失，新土地和農場收入的供應有限，正如布拉德在上一個問題中提到的那樣，它將會下降。營運資金將會面臨壓力，我認為人們會對利用這些股權產生興趣。因此，正如我們在準備好的評論中所做的那樣，與去年相比並進入 2024 年，是的，我認為我們更樂觀地認為，與 2023 年相比，2024 年實現增長的機會更大。話雖這麼說，農業法案中的許多事情都可能發生變化，無論是政治年還是利率。所以很難真正確定這一點。但我認為我們正比 2023 年更樂觀。

Okay. That's helpful. Renewable loan growth, very positive. You had 153% growth in 2022, 100% growth in 2023. We talked about the outreach on the syndication side, adding some and head count. I mean, I don't think all those initiatives are in place and we grew that loan book to 100%, and it's over $400 million. I think in the past we've talked about the idea of that being a $1 billion portfolio at some point. Can you just help us understand how that that loan book looks going into 2024 and Jorg, where could that end up? And then maybe even where could that be in 2025, some of these initiatives gain traction and such.

好的。這很有幫助。可再生貸款成長非常積極。2022 年成長 153%，2023 年成長 100%。我們討論了聯合組織的外展工作，增加了一些內容和人數。我的意思是，我認為所有這些舉措都沒有到位，但我們的貸款總額已增加到 100%，金額超過 4 億美元。我認為過去我們曾在某個時候討論過 10 億美元投資組合的想法。您能否幫助我們了解 2024 年貸款簿的情況，以及 Jorg，最終會在哪裡？到 2025 年，其中一些舉措可能會獲得關注等。

But Zach has done a lot of infrastructure building here with policies, more creative with our credit policies, Zach, with key hires. So we saw that pickup in 23, it really accelerated on the back half of 23 going into 24 on the pieces are all in place to continue that very strong momentum. So that $1 billion number. It's very realistic that that could happen some time. And in 25 on, I think that gives you kind of a a slot that you can work on.

但扎克在這裡用政策進行了大量基礎設施建設，我們的信貸政策更有創意，扎克，還有關鍵員工。因此，我們看到了 23 月份的回升，在 23 月份後半段進入 24 月份時，它確實加速了，因為所有部件都已就位，以繼續保持非常強勁的勢頭。這就是 10 億美元的數字。這是非常現實的，這種情況有時可能會發生。在 25 歲以後，我認為這給了你一個可以工作的機會。

Okay. And then I haven't heard this from Aparna, but just comment on as so the higher cost preferreds you guys are in the market for a number of years, but I do see that I think the Series C actually redeemable in 2024, I mean, is that a preferred we'd be looking to remove? And then I think on a bigger picture question is there any benefit to leaving the preferreds in place as it relates to how the regulators calculate your capital ratios or we pretty clearly saying we'd like to remove those preferreds over time. And then as a result of that, it actually improves the dividend capacity to the common holders. So maybe just some more color there. And should we be expecting those preferreds to be and removed over time with those call provisions?

好的。然後我還沒有從 Aparna 那裡聽到這一點，只是評論一下你們多年來在市場上的更高成本偏好，但我確實看到我認為 C 系列實際上可以在 2024 年贖回，我的意思是，這是我們想要刪除的首選嗎？然後我認為，從更大的角度來看，保留優先股是否有任何好處，因為這與監管機構如何計算資本比率有關，或者我們非常明確地說，我們希望隨著時間的推移取消這些優先股。結果，它實際上提高了普通股持有人的分紅能力。所以也許只是多一些顏色。我們是否應該預期隨著時間的推移，這些優先股會隨著這些贖回條款而被刪除？

Yes. Yes. So I think that's and that's an excellent question. It's something that we really think about in entirety. We don't we don't really distinguish between our sources of capital, but we do make a slight distinction in our own minds as we think about the quality of capital and the quality of capital being organic and retained earnings because that then allows us to have a base of capital that we can very efficiently deploy for growth, but also in terms of really rewarding our shareholders and the here and now.

是的。是的。所以我認為這是一個很好的問題。這是我們真正全面思考的事情。我們並沒有真正區分我們的資本來源，但當我們考慮資本品質和有機收益和留存收益的資本品質時，我們確實在自己的想法中做了一些細微的區別，因為這樣我們就可以擁有一個我們可以非常有效地部署以實現成長的資本基礎，同時也可以真正回報我們的股東和此時此地。

So that's that's really the big picture in terms of how we think about our capital in terms of preferreds or preferreds are an excellent source of capital for us. We have access to the retail preferred market. The way we think about our preferred issuances to Forest is we tried to do that opportunistically. So in 2020 and 2021. And we were able to tap the retail preferred market and issue a preferred that was sub-5% and sub-6%. And so we did that. And if we were ever able to do that again, that's exactly what we would do. These are fixed rate preferreds where we really hold call options, the Series C that you note, you're absolutely right. That has an option where we can redeem it.

這就是我們如何看待優先股或優先股對我們來說是極好的資本來源的整體情況。我們可以進入零售首選市場。我們考慮向 Forest 發行首選債券的方式是，我們試圖抓住機會這樣做。所以在2020年和2021年。我們能夠開拓零售優先市場並發行低於 5% 和低於 6% 的優先股。所以我們就這麼做了。如果我們能夠再次這樣做，這正是我們會做的。這些是固定利率優先股，我們真正持有看漲期權，您注意到的 C 系列，您是絕對正確的。那有一個我們可以兌換它的選項。

And if we did not, then it would convert to floating. And as you know, in the current rate environment that would result in additional costs approximately to the tune of about $2 million per year. We haven't really made a complete decision as yet, but what I would say is just given our various degrees of freedom plus our excellent credit quality, the fact that we've got a really a very big and growing share of our capital stack coming from retained earnings, highly probable that it is something that we will look at. But preferreds are very much an option for us and it will continue to be an option for us, but we look at it in terms of an expensive option versus something that's really opportunistic. So in this particular case, you're right, it is redeemable and it does convert to floating. So it's probably something that we'll take a very close look at as we approach the redemption date to consider whether we want to let that go. And if we want to issue something possibly when the markets are favorable to us in the fixed rate environment.

如果我們不這樣做，那麼它將轉換為浮動。如您所知，在當前的費率環境下，這將導致每年約 200 萬美元的額外成本。我們還沒有真正做出完整的決定，但我想說的是，考慮到我們不同程度的自由度，加上我們卓越的信用質量，事實上，我們在資本中擁有非常大且不斷增長的份額來自留存收益，我們很可能會關注這一點。但首選對我們來說是一種選擇，並將繼續是我們的一種選擇，但我們從昂貴的選擇與真正機會主義的角度來看待它。因此，在這種特殊情況下，你是對的，它是可贖回的，並且確實會轉換為浮動。因此，當我們接近贖回日期時，我們可能會仔細考慮這一點，以考慮是否要放棄這一點。如果我們想在固定利率環境下市場對我們有利的時候發行一些東西。

Yeah --?

是的——？

Yes, I just like I just like to add. I mean, we have harnessed talked fairness talked about the optionality that we have and and whether we choose to redeem that in July or not will depend on factors that we're not looking at today. They will depend on the factors that we're looking at in the second quarter. It will be revisiting growth. We'll be revisiting on Basel will be with this thing farm bill and taking into consideration all the things that you would expect management to be looking at before coming up with a position on that. But I would add is the other part of your question was how do we stand with the regulators?

是的，我只是喜歡我只是喜歡添加。我的意思是，我們已經利用公平的方式討論了我們擁有的選擇權，以及我們是否選擇在 7 月贖回將取決於我們今天沒有考慮的因素。它們將取決於我們在第二季度關注的因素。它將重新審視成長。我們將重新審視巴塞爾的農業法案，並考慮您希望管理層在提出立場之前考慮的所有事情。但我想補充一點，你問題的另一部分是我們如何與監管機構站在一起？

Simply put, our levels of capitalization by every measure have never been stronger and we far exceed all regulatory requirements. We do regular stress testing with regulators. We do well under that stress testing with our capital. Our Farmer Mac has never been stronger. And when you consider on the financial results, return on equity of 19%, almost 19%. You consider the growth in earnings. If you consider dividends, you consider the growth in the in the overall volume of Farmer Mac that we have done that while also increasing capital makes it even more remarkable because oftentimes there's a trade-off for us. There's not been a trade-off So work that gives us a lot of flexibility, a lot of options to run this business to even greater success in the future. We're not constrained by capital.

簡而言之，從各個方面來看，我們的資本水準都達到了前所未有的水平，並且遠遠超過了所有監管要求。我們定期與監管機構進行壓力測試。我們的資本在壓力測試中表現良好。我們的農夫麥克從未如此強大。當你考慮財務表現時，股本報酬率為 19%，幾乎是 19%。您考慮收入的成長。如果您考慮股息，您會考慮我們所做的 Farmer Mac 總量的成長，同時增加資本使其更加引人注目，因為我們通常需要進行權衡。沒有任何權衡，因此工作為我們提供了很大的靈活性和很多選擇，可以讓我們的業務在未來取得更大的成功。我們不受資本的限制。

And I'll just add that securitization is another lever, which is another capital-efficient tool that we will throw into the mix as we think about retained earnings preferred and now securitization. In terms of thinking about it, our leverage ratios and our Tier one ratio so that's just another thing that we throw into them.

我只想補充一點，證券化是另一個槓桿，這是另一個資本效率工具，當我們考慮優先留存收益和現在的證券化時，我們將把它加入組合中。就思考而言，我們的槓桿率和一級比率只是我們投入的另一件事。

Yes, Brad, I agree. You've done a phenomenal job. I like the slide to dividend kegger. I mean, I think we've talked about this in the past. I don't know if there's any company that's additive have a faster dividend growth than years in the financial statements sounding in the spreads continue to hold up and you continue to see most financial companies be dealing with spread compression. And you haven't really it had very much you had like you said 19%. Are we at incredibly attractive, especially from a consistency perspective. And we've talked about this before, the stock's still probably undervalued, but continuing to increase the dividend, hopefully now get more people to look at the stock.

是的，布拉德，我同意。你做得非常出色。我喜歡股息的下滑。我的意思是，我想我們過去已經討論過這個問題。我不知道是否有任何一家公司的股息成長速度比財務報表中的幾年更快，利差繼續保持不變，並且您繼續看到大多數金融公司正在處理利差壓縮問題。而且你並沒有真正擁有像你所說的 19% 那樣的東西。我們是否具有難以置信的吸引力，尤其是從一致性的角度來看。我們之前已經討論過，該股票可能仍然被低估，但繼續增加股息，希望現在能讓更多人關注該股票。

Final question is I have and I've asked this many times before, just hiring. We added quite a few people in 2023. So can you update us on who do we need to hire in 2024? Where does that stand in terms of getting those people in place? Then can you give us an update on any of the the IT initiatives we've been putting in place? Are the partially done? Are they completed or is there more work to be done?

最後一個問題是我已經問過很多次了，只是招募。2023 年我們增加了相當多的人員。那麼您能否告訴我們 2024 年我們需要雇用誰的最新情況？這對於讓這些人就位而言有何意義？那麼您能否向我們介紹一下我們已經實施的 IT 計劃的最新情況？部分完成了嗎？它們是否已完成或還有更多工作要做？

Sure. Of course, yes, we we have expanded our employee base. I think we ended up 2023 with 184, 186 employees, something like that. And we have over the last couple of years that it's been a balance of of funding and ALM related business development related core control and risk management related across the organization, compliance you think about an organization with our aggregate volume approaching $30 billion, that has all the 184 employees. We have to have a full suite of very very talented people doing a lot of functions that banks our size do with literally thousands of employees.

當然。當然，是的，我們擴大了我們的員工基礎。我認為到 2023 年，我們的員工人數為 184、186 人，差不多是這樣。在過去的幾年裡，我們一直在整個組織內實現資金和 ALM 相關業務開發相關的核心控制和風險管理的平衡，您認為一個總交易量接近 300 億美元的組織的合規性，這一切184名員工。我們必須擁有一整套非常非常有才華的人來完成我們規模的銀行需要數千名員工才能完成的許多職能。

So we feel very good about the additional depth we've built in our organization as we go into 2024 and kind of through our budgeting process. And it's pretty simple. It's a little bit of emphasis on our branding and communications in terms of headcount just a bit on IT and the rest really is business development. We feel that we have built very, very strong origination credit approval, credit administration, credit policy funding on the platforms here at Farmer Mac, and now let's work to put more volume through them. That's so that's kind of that reflected in our choice of of how we're allocating increases in headcount. The increases in headcount in 24 will be slower than they have been in the last couple of years. We believe as it relates to IT initiatives, there's a tremendous amount going on, Sean, that you joined us as CEO in the second quarter of 23. He feels like he's been here for over a year. He has gotten a tremendous amount done. He has brought a lot of organization to that team and they're currently focused on on many tactical projects, but two huge strategic projects. And I'll let Aparna Zach comment on them. The first is what we call stars, which we expect to finish this year, maybe even half the halfway through the year. And the other is an update to it hugely important and huge legacy platform here at Farmer Mac called A. power. But apparently you want to probably provide an update on that, why it's so important. And then, Zach, you too?

因此，隨著我們進入 2024 年，我們對我們在組織中建立的額外深度以及預算流程感到非常滿意。這非常簡單。就人員數量而言，我們有點強調我們的品牌和溝通，只是在 IT 方面有所側重，其餘的才是真正的業務發展。我們認為，我們已經在 Farmer Mac 的平台上建立了非常非常強大的原始信貸審批、信貸管理、信貸政策融資，現在讓我們努力透過這些平台增加更多的數量。這在某種程度上反映在我們對如何分配增加的員工人數的選擇上。24 的員工人數成長速度將低於過去幾年。我們相信，由於與 IT 計劃相關，肖恩，您於 23 年第二季度加入我們擔任首席執行官，因此發生了大量事情。他感覺自己已經在這裡待了一年多了。他已經完成了巨大的工作。他為該團隊帶來了許多組織，他們目前專注於許多戰術項目，但有兩個巨大的戰略項目。我會讓阿帕娜·扎克對它們發表評論。第一個是我們所說的明星，我們預計會在今年完成，甚至可能在今年的一半完成。另一個是 Farmer Mac 非常重要且龐大的遺留平台的更新，稱為 A. power。但顯然您可能想提供有關該問題的最新信息，以及為什麼它如此重要。然後，札克，你也是嗎？

Yes, sure. Let me let me give you a bit of a sense about this treasury platform that we're embarking on a you know, it is the most significant overhaul. I would say of platform, the Farmer Mac, it impacts about two thirds of the balance sheet, both on the asset side as well as the liability side, something that most people don't know is that we have a significant amount of payments that really caused through a loan payments as well as debt holders. So we actually transact anywhere between $0.5 trillion to three-quarters of a $1 trillion in terms of just payments. In addition to different securities, we have hedging and reporting, et cetera, as well as what we do with our wholesale financing all of that really goes through these platforms. These have been platforms that have been in existence, and I really commend the team at Farmer Mac are the founding team that has really layered on dupi functions.

是的，當然。讓我向您介紹我們正在著手進行的這個財務平台，您知道，這是最重要的改革。我想說的是 Farmer Mac 平台，它影響了資產負債表的三分之二，無論是資產方面還是負債方面，大多數人不知道的是，我們有大量的付款確實是透過貸款支付以及債務持有人造成的。因此，就支付而言，我們實際上的交易額在 0.5 兆美元到 1 兆美元的四分之三之間。除了不同的證券之外，我們還有對沖和報告等，以及我們的批發融資，所有這些都真正透過這些平台進行。這些都是已經存在的平台，我非常讚揚 Farmer Mac 的團隊，他們是真正在 dupi 功能上進行分層的創始團隊。

But today we have options and we have commercial products that are out there. So we've been working with the consultant who's helped us through this journey of the last two years. And we've really selected to our key vendors who are going to really provision platforms for both our front end, our middle office as well as a cash management system. And this is going to create a lot of dependencies internally in terms of overhauling our data flows through as well as how our different capabilities with respect to hedging and reporting really connect. And so it's a massive effort with lots of people touches a lot. And you know, this is an initiative that, you know, LGC is anywhere between you know, we foresee somewhere between $16 million to $20 million in our cash expenses obviously gets capitalized and there's the P&L impact that we continually recalibrate words.

但今天我們有選擇，我們有商業產品。因此，我們一直在與顧問合作，他在過去兩年中幫助我們完成了這段旅程。我們確實選擇了關鍵供應商，他們將為我們的前端、中台以及現金管理系統提供平台。這將在徹底檢查我們的資料流以及我們在對沖和報告方面的不同能力如何真正聯繫方面產生許多內部依賴性。所以這是一項巨大的努力，很多人都參與其中。你知道，這是一項計劃，你知道，LGC 介於你知道之間，我們預計我們的現金支出將在1600 萬美元到2000 萬美元之間，顯然會被資本化，而且我們不斷重新調整措辭會對損益產生影響。

But as Brad mentioned, you know it's going very well as any large-scale initiative might. And we expect to see this come to fruition optimistically in the middle of this year, but certainly no later through. I would say the third quarter or so, but a tremendous partnership across the organization. And I echo Brad and Sean has been a tremendous addition to the executive team and a tremendous partner as well on this initiative. And then the second initiative is really the loan origination platform. So I'll just turn to Zack. He can give you a little bit more color on how we're really innovating around some of those -- some of those technologies that drive our business.

但正如布拉德所提到的，你知道它會像任何大型計劃一樣進展順利。我們預計這一目標將在今年年中樂觀地實現，但肯定不會更晚。我想說的是第三季左右，但整個組織之間建立了巨大的合作關係。我同意布拉德和肖恩對執行團隊的巨大補充，也是這項計畫的重要合作夥伴。第二項舉措其實是貸款發放平台。所以我就轉向札克。他可以讓您更了解我們如何圍繞其中一些技術進行真正的創新——其中一些技術推動了我們的業務。

DeForest, I'll be I'll be quick, but you and Brad mentioned ag power. That's our infrastructure that our community banks and our sellers used to interact and transact with Farmer Mac. Our goal is to dramatically changed that infrastructure to be cheaper, more customer friendly, more effective and drive down the time some of us purchasing a loan from our sellers as quickly as possible. So that's better technology, that's more efficiencies that's leveraging collateral enhancements and really providing a state-of-the-art infrastructure platform that all of our sellers can use that can transact as easily as possible with Farmer Mac.

德福雷斯特，我會很快，但你和布拉德提到了農業力量。這是我們的基礎設施，我們的社區銀行和賣家用來與 Farmer Mac 互動和交易。我們的目標是大幅改變基礎設施，使其變得更便宜、對客戶更友善、更有效，並儘快縮短我們中的一些人從賣家那裡購買貸款的時間。因此，這是更好的技術，更高的效率，利用附帶的增強功能，真正提供最先進的基礎設施平台，我們所有的賣家都可以使用該平台，並儘可能輕鬆地與 Farmer Mac 進行交易。

And on the positive side, I think Sean. And I feel by into 2024, we'll be rolling something out. And I think we're very excited. We're receiving a lot of positive reinforcement from our customers. So again, this just to be a state-of-the-art infrastructure loan origination platform for our sellers.

我認為從積極的一面來看，肖恩。我覺得到 2024 年，我們將會推出一些東西。我認為我們非常興奮。我們從客戶那裡得到了很多積極的支持。再說一遍，這只是為我們的賣家提供最先進的基礎設施貸款發放平台。

Okay, great. And then just a final comment at the idea of adding equity compensation across the entire employee base. I think you said that that's a very good idea and should probably help with that retention. You're your mission-based focus. And I that's very helpful. So thanks for taking all the questions.

好的，太好了。最後對在整個員工基礎上增加股權薪酬的想法進行最後的評論。我認為你說過這是一個非常好的主意，並且可能有助於保留。你是你基於使命的焦點。這對我很有幫助。感謝您提出所有問題。

Yes, we appreciate that that said, but very much we do think it's important. It resulted in about a doubling when we went to equity for all lose about a doubling in the number of employees who are eligible for awards. And and it allows us to have conversations about stock stock performance, the relation of that to overall financial performance and the relation of that to overall service division. So we think that it's just one more thing that contributes to a really healthy and very passionate mission focused culture at Farmer Mac.

是的，我們對此表示讚賞，但我們確實認為這很重要。當我們進行所有人平等時，有資格獲得獎勵的員工人數增加了一倍。而且它使我們能夠討論股票的表現、其與整體財務表現的關係以及其與整體服務部門的關係。因此，我們認為這只是另一件事，有助於在 Farmer Mac 創造一種真正健康且充滿熱情的以使命為中心的文化。

There are no further questions at this time. I would now like to turn the call over to Brad Nordholm. Please go ahead.

目前沒有其他問題。我現在想把電話轉給布拉德·諾德霍爾姆。請繼續。

Great. Well, thank you, everyone, for joining us today. We really appreciate your participation, your interest and many great questions, which we hope with addressed to your satisfaction. If you have follow-ups, of course, get in touch with Joppa But otherwise, we will be having our next regularly scheduled call in May three for our first quarter 2024 results. And we look forward to that very much and hope you have a great day and please stay in touch. Thank you.

偉大的。好的，謝謝大家今天加入我們。我們非常感謝您的參與、您的興趣以及提出的許多重要問題，我們希望您能滿意地解決這些問題。當然，如果您有後續行動，請與 Joppa 聯繫，但除此之外，我們將在 5 月 3 日舉行下一次定期電話會議，以了解 2024 年第一季的業績。我們非常期待這一點，並希望您度過愉快的一天，請保持聯繫。謝謝。

Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes your conference call for today. We thank you for Barclays. Having enough that you please disconnect your lines.

女士們、先生們，今天的電話會議到此結束。我們感謝巴克萊銀行。已經足夠了，請斷開線路。