Farmer Mac Offering $500M of Notes

The Federal Agricultural Mortgage Corp., Washington, D.C., has announced a $500 million offering of guaranteed notes by the newly created Farmer Mac Guaranteed Notes Trust 2006-1.The notes will be collateralized by an obligation of Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. that is, in turn, collateralized by Farmer Mac-eligible agricultural real estate mortgage loans, Farmer Mac said. The government-sponsored enterprise said the transaction is part of the company's effort to diversify its marketing focus "to include large program transactions that emphasize high asset quality, with greater protection against adverse credit performance and commensurately lower compensation for the assumption of credit risk and administrative costs...." The GSE can be found online at http://www.farmermac.com.