Impacts of Regulatory Change on Financial Markets for Agriculture: Discussion

Abstract

mentioned in Barry's paper are having an impact on rural credit markets. The first is the introduction of financial futures markets, which should allow for some reduction in the anticipated growth in interest rate risks. The second is the emergence of a service provided by financial intermediaries wherein small banks' certificates of deposit are packaged to offer in the national money markets (I1lingworth). This service will reinforce the other trends that Barry suggests will more fully integrate rural financial markets with the national economy. The third is that nonmember banks gained access to the Federal Reserve System's discount window with the enactment of the Depository Institutions Deregulation and Monetary Control Act of 1980. Such access may provide a source of credit to some nonmember rural banks that they have not had in the past. Finally, the rapid growth of money market mutual funds has decreased the flow of funds in rural credit markets over the last two years (Gramley). But in the future, as new equilibriums are established and alternatives evolve for rural banks to tap national money markets, this problem likely will decline in importance. Impacts on the Farm Sector