DULLES, VA -- (Marketwired) -- 01/21/15 -- Standard & Poor's Ratings Services (S&P) has revised its outlook on the National Rural Utilities Cooperative Finance Corporation (CFC) to "stable" from "negative." S&P also affirmed its A and A-1 long- and short-term issuer credit ratings on CFC.
S&P initially issued the negative outlook based on revised rating methodologies for nonbank financial institutions announced in December. Following the announcement, CFC began taking steps to return the rating outlook to stable.
In revising the outlook, S&P cited CFC's recent collateral trust bond offering and an amendment of its revolving note purchase agreement with Farmer Mac. CFC amended its agreement with Farmer Mac to increase the total commitment amount by $600 million to $4.5 billion. The draw period also was extended by four years to January 2020.
"In our view, these actions mitigate the liquidity risks we pointed to when we revised our outlook on CFC to negative in December 2014 -- at the same time we updated our criteria for rating nonbank financial institutions," S&P said in announcing the stable outlook.
Moody's Investors Service's (Moody's) assessment of CFC remains unchanged. On Nov. 24, 2014, Moody's reaffirmed CFC's senior secured debt rating, senior unsecured debt rating, subordinate debt rating and short-term rating with a stable outlook.
This press release contains forward-looking statements, which are based on certain assumptions and describe our future plans, strategies and expectations, and are generally identified by our use of words such as "intend," "plan," "may," "should," "will," "project," "estimate," "anticipate," "believe," "expect," "continue," "potential," "opportunity" and similar expressions, whether in the negative or affirmative. All statements about future expectations or projections are forward-looking statements. Although we believe that the expectations reflected in our forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, actual results and performance could materially differ. Factors that could cause future results to vary from current expectations are included in our annual and quarterly periodic reports previously filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Except as required by law, we undertake no obligation to update or publicly release any revisions to forward-looking statements to reflect events, circumstances or changes in expectations after the date on which the statement is made.
About CFC
The National Rural Utilities Cooperative Finance Corporation (CFC) is a nonprofit finance cooperative created and owned by America's electric cooperative network. With more than $22 billion in assets, CFC is committed to providing unparalleled industry expertise, flexibility and responsiveness to serve the needs of our member-owners. CFC is an equal opportunity provider and employer. Visit us online at www.nrucfc.coop.
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Brad Captain
Corporate Relations
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Ling Wang
Banking & Investor Relations
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