Are Financial Institutions Meeting The Needs of Canadian Farmers?
Stratus Ag Research recently released the 2018 Performance of Canadian Financial Institutions in Agriculture, a survey of 800 farmers across Canada.
Farmers want to deal with a financial institution that will meet their borrowing needs. But they also want their institution to understand agriculture and be flexible enough to meet the unique needs of their individual farming operation.
In the summer of 2018, Stratus interviewed 800 farmers from across Canada. The participating farmers averaged $1.1 million in annual gross farm sales and just under $1.0 million of total farm debt.
The report includes detailed data comparing individual financial institutions such as ATB, BMO, CIBC, National Bank, RBC, Scotiabank, TD Canada Trust, FCC, Desjardins and other credit unions.
FCC got top marks for the main things that farmers want from their financial institution. They are best in terms of providing financing, doing it in a way that adapts to individual needs. They have a commanding lead for being knowledgeable about agriculture.
On average, the banks got lower ratings on these important factors. But not all banks are the same. According to their customers, some banks are much better than others, especially when it comes to knowledge of agriculture.
Those differences in ratings on individual performance factors also translate into big differences in Net Promoter Scores. FCC has a NPS of +40, ahead of credit unions (+30) and far ahead of the banks (+6). Again, there is a very big difference between banks with Net Promoter Scores ranging from +42 to -2.
There is no question that some financial institutions are doing a great job of meeting the needs of Canadian farmers, but others need to step up their game.