Organization

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2021

Organization, Consolidation and Presentation of Financial Statements [Abstract]

Organization

ORGANIZATION

The Federal Agricultural Mortgage Corporation ("Farmer Mac") is a stockholder-owned, federally chartered instrumentality of the United States established under Title VIII of the Farm Credit Act of 1971, as amended (12 U.S.C. §§ 2279aa et seq.), which is sometimes referred to as Farmer Mac's charter. Farmer Mac was originally created by the United States Congress to provide a secondary market for a variety of loans made to borrowers in rural America. This secondary market is designed to increase the availability of long-term credit at stable interest rates to America's rural communities and to provide rural borrowers with the benefits of capital markets pricing and product innovation.  

Farmer Mac's secondary market activities include:

•purchasing eligible loans directly from lenders;

•providing advances against eligible loans by purchasing obligations secured by those loans;

•securitizing assets and guaranteeing the payment of principal and interest on the resulting securities that represent interests in, or obligations secured by, pools of eligible loans; and

•issuing long-term standby purchase commitments ("LTSPCs") for eligible loans.

Farmer Mac conducts its secondary market activities through two lines of business — Agricultural Finance and Rural Infrastructure Finance. For more information about those lines of business and the segments within them, see Note 14 - Business Segments.