Organization and Consolidation (Policies)

3 Months Ended

Jan. 28, 2024

Organization and Consolidation

Fiscal Year, Policy

We use a 52/53 week fiscal year with quarters ending on the last Sunday in the reporting period. The first quarter ends for fiscal years 2024 and 2023 were January 28, 2024 and January 29, 2023, respectively. Both periods contained 13 weeks. Unless otherwise stated, references to particular years, quarters, or months refer to our fiscal years generally ending in October and the associated periods in those fiscal years.

Financing Incentives, Policy

We provide incentive funds to John Deere dealers that meet certain performance metrics, which include minimum finance volume and finance market share with us over a defined period. At the end of the qualification period, dealers are granted incentive funds, which can be used for certain predefined uses, including interest rate reductions on future loan and lease

originations. In addition, certain dealers may elect to receive cash for a portion of their earned funds. We accrue for the incentive costs over the qualification period, which are reported as “Administrative and operating expenses” in the consolidated income statements and “Accounts payable and accrued expenses” in the consolidated balance sheets. The accrued liability is released as dealers utilize the funds.

Use of Estimates in Financial Statements, Policy

Certain accounting policies require management to make estimates and assumptions in determining the amounts reflected in the financial statements and related disclosures. Actual results could differ from those estimates.

New Accounting Standards, Policy

We closely monitor all Accounting Standard Updates (ASUs) issued by the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) and other authoritative guidance.

Accounting Standards Adopted

In the first quarter of 2024, we adopted ASU No. 2022-02, Financial Instruments – Credit Losses (Topic 326): Troubled Debt Restructurings and Vintage Disclosures. The ASU eliminates the accounting guidance for troubled debt restructurings, enhances disclosures for certain receivable modifications related to borrowers experiencing financial difficulty, and requires disclosure of current period gross write-offs by year of origination. The adoption did not have a material effect on our consolidated financial statements.

We also adopted the following standards in 2024, none of which had a material effect on our consolidated financial statements.  

2022-01 — Derivatives and Hedging (Topic 815): Fair Value Hedging – Portfolio Layer Method

2021-08 — Business Combinations (Topic 805): Accounting for Contract Assets and Contract Liabilities from Contracts with Customers

Accounting Standards to be Adopted

In December 2023, the FASB issued ASU 2023-09, Income Taxes (Topic 740): Improvements to Income Tax Disclosures, which expands disclosures in an entity’s income tax rate reconciliation table and cash taxes paid both in the U.S. and foreign jurisdictions. The effective date of the ASU is fiscal year 2026. We are assessing the effect of this update on our related disclosures.

We will also adopt the following standards in future periods, none of which are expected to have a material effect on our consolidated financial statements.

2023-07 — Segment Reporting (Topic 280): Improvements to Reportable Segment Disclosures

2023-06 — Disclosure Improvements: Codification Amendments in Response to the SEC’s Disclosure Update and Simplification Initiative

2023-05 — Business Combinations—Joint Venture Formations (Subtopic 805-60): Recognition and Initial Measurement

Allowance for Credit Losses, Policy

The allowance for credit losses is an estimate of the credit losses expected over the life of our Receivable portfolio. Non-performing Receivables are included in the estimate of expected credit losses. The allowance is measured on a collective basis for receivables with similar risk characteristics. Receivables that do not share risk characteristics are evaluated on an individual basis. Risk characteristics include:

● product category,

● market,

● geography,

● credit risk, and

● remaining balance.

Recoveries from freestanding credit enhancements, such as dealer deposits, and certain credit insurance contracts are not included in the estimate of expected credit losses. Recoveries from dealer deposits are recognized in “Other income” when the dealer’s deposit account is charged. During the three months ended January 28, 2024 and January 29, 2023, recoveries from freestanding credit enhancements recorded in other income were $7.3 and $2.0, respectively.

Securitization of Receivables, Policy

Our funding strategy includes retail note securitizations. While these securitization programs are administered in various forms, they are accomplished in the following basic steps:

1.  We transfer retail notes into a bankruptcy-remote SPE.

2.  The SPE issues debt to investors. The debt is secured by the retail notes.

3.  Investors are paid back based on cash receipts from the retail notes.

As part of step 1, these retail notes are legally isolated from the claims of our general creditors. This ensures cash receipts from the retail notes are accessible to pay back securitization program investors. The structure of these transactions does not meet the accounting criteria for a sale of receivables. As a result, they are accounted for as a secured borrowing. The receivables and borrowings remain on our balance sheet and are separately reported as “Retail notes securitized” and “Securitization borrowings,” respectively.