Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 85.djvu/625

 85 STAT. ]

PUBLIC LAW 92-181-DEC. 10, 1971

period of the loan, in accordance with the rate or rates currently being charged by the bank. No obligation tendered for discount by a financing institution, without the approval of the F a r m Credit Administration, shall be eligible for discount upon which the original borrower has been charged a rate of interest exceeding by more than l i ^ per centum per annum the discount rate of the bank. SEC. 2.5. SERVICES BELATED TO BORROWERS' OPERATIONS.—The Federal intermediate credit banks may provide technical assistance to borrowers, members, and applicants from the banks and production credit associations, including persons obligated on paper discounted by the bank, and may make available to them at their option such financial related services appropriate to their on-farm operations as determined to be feasible by the board of directors of each district bank, under regulations of the F a r m Credit Administration. SEC. 2.6. N E T EARNINGS—DETERMINATION; ANNUAL APPLICATION; SURPLUS ACCOUNT; ABSORPTION OF N E T LOSS.— (a) If, at the end of a

fiscal year a Federal intermediate credit bank shall have stock outstanding held by the Governor of the Farm Credit Administration, such bank shall determine the amount of its net earnings after paying or providing for all operating expenses (including reasonable valuation reserves and losses in excess of any such applicable reserves) and shall apply such net earnings as follows: (1) to the restoration of the impairment, if any, of capital stock and participation certificates, as determined by its board of directors; (2) to the restoration of the amount of the impairment, if any, of the surplus account or allocated reserve account established by this subsection, as determined by its board of directors; (3) 25 per centum of any remaining net earnings shall be used to create and maintain an allocated reserve account; (4) a franchise tax shall be paid to the United States, as provided in section 4.0 of this Act; (5) reasonable unallocated contingency reserve account may be established and maintained; (6) dividends on stock held by production credit associations and on participation certificates may be declared as provided in section 2.2(f) of this title; and (7) any remaining net earnings shall be distributed as patronage refunds as provided in subsection (b) of this section. Amounts applied to reserve account as provided in (3) above, either heretofore or hereafter, shall be allocated on the same patronage basis and have the same tax treatment as is provided in subsection (b) of this section for patronage refunds. A t the end of any fiscal year that the allocated reserve account of any bank exceeds 25 per centum of its outstanding stock and participation certificates, such excess may be distributed, oldest allocations first, in stock to production credit associations and participation certificates issued as of the date of the allocations. If and when the relative amounts of stock in a Federal intermediate ^ credit bank owned by the production credit associations are adjusted to reestablish the proportion of such stock owned by each association, as provided in the first or second paragraphs of section 2.2 (g) of this title, amounts in the reserve account that are allocated to production credit associations may be adjusted in the same manner, so far as practicable, to reestablish the holdings of the production credit associations in the allocated legal reserve accounts into substantially the same proportion as are their holdings of stock. No part of the surplus account established by a Federal intermediate credit bank on January 1, 1957, consisting of its earned surplus account, its reserve for contingencies, and the surplus of the production credit corporation transferred to the bank, shall be distributed as patronage refunds or as dividends. I n the event of a net loss in any fis75-432 O - 72 - 40

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