By P.J. Huffstutter
By P.J. Huffstutter
HARROD, Ohio, Oct 22 (Reuters) – After finishing a credit score assessment in a half-hour cellphone name, a BMO Harris Financial institution underwriter cleared $12 million in loans for Ohio corn and soybean producer Greg Kruger in 2013.
Kruger had initially requested for a $2 million mortgage to construct a grain elevator. However the Chicago-based financial institution, one of many largest U.S. farm lenders, ended up promoting him a $5 million mortgage for the elevator and one other $7 million to finance crops, equipment and debt consolidation, in keeping with paperwork within the Ohio foreclosures case the financial institution filed to grab Kruger’s farm.
When Kruger supplied to provide receipts of bought grain and different customary documentation, his mortgage officer instructed him to not trouble. “‘Don’t be concerned. We’ll make the numbers work’,” Kruger, 67, recalled the officer saying.
5 years later, after aggressively increasing its U.S. farm mortgage portfolio, the financial institution known as in Kruger’s loans as corn and soy costs collapsed and the US was beginning a commerce battle with China. Because the U.S. agricultural economic system sours and…