Deere & Co. is introducing a new name — John Deere Financial — for its business unit that offers credit and other financial services. The change is being made to better represent the full breadth of products and services offered by the business. It had previously been known as John Deere Credit.

"John Deere Financial remains committed to providing products and services that help customers, dealers and others succeed around the world," said Jim Israel, president of Deere & Co.'s Worldwide Financial Services Division. An example of this growth, he said, came earlier this year when Deere established John Deere Insurance Company to strengthen the company's position in the crop insurance industry.

"When we made the decision to expand our presence in the crop insurance industry, we realized that our name needed to change to encompass our expanding range of financial products and services," Israel said. "The new name more accurately reflects our strong commitment to meet the diverse business needs of our customers, dealers and other distributors around the world."

John Deere Financial will continue to serve equipment customers worldwide by offering retail, wholesale and lease financing to facilitate the sale of John Deere equipment in agriculture, construction, forestry, and turf care. The company also will continue to provide revolving credit and crop insurance for customers while assessing other products that could help customers whose work is linked to the land.

Since entering the crop insurance market in 2005, John Deere has leveraged its expertise in agriculture to help customers obtain insurance protection against yield and price loss of their crops.

"Crop insurance is just one of the complementary financial services we offer to help our customers meet their business needs," Israel said. "Our new name provides us with an opportunity to better represent the broad range of financial services that we provide."

The transition to the new name will take place over the next few months at various locations with signage at the division's headquarters in Johnston being the first to change.

John Deere Financial is one of the largest providers of financial services to agricultural and construction customers in the U.S. with more than 2.6 million accounts and a managed portfolio over $23 billion. In addition to providing retail, wholesale and lease financing to help facilitate the sale of John Deere agricultural, construction and forestry, and turf and utility equipment, John Deere Financial also offers revolving credit and crop insurance. Today, John Deere Financial has approximately 1,900 employees worldwide and has operations in 20 countries.