Capital Farm Credit, Texas' largest cooperatively owned rural lender, distributed more than 13,000 checks totaling $18.9 million in cash to its members. [San Antonio Business Journal]

Officials with the Bryan, Texas-based lender distributed the funds as part of its cash patronage dividend. Capital Farm Credit also allocated another $43.5 million of the co-op's earnings for member for a potential distribution in the future.

"We have an advantage as a cooperative lender, because our borrowers are also our stockholders. That means they are the ones who benefit when we do well, and we are pleased to be returning almost all of our 2007 earnings to them," Capital Farm Credit CEO Ben Novosad says.

"This cash patronage effectively reduced the interest rate paid by our borrowers in 2007 by an average of 65 basis points, or 0.65 percent," he says.

Capital Farm Credit experienced double-digit growth throughout 2007, ending the year with an 18 percent growth in loan volume over the previous year and a record $65 million in net income. The lender's loan volume exceeded $3.2 billion.