Ohio Treasurer of State Praises CBAO for Leadership

In a CBAO-hosted webinar held February sixth, and attended by over fifty community bankers, Ohio Treasurer of State Josh Mandel praised the Community Bankers Association of Ohio for its leadership and advocacy in developing the Star Plus program. Through this program cash balances, including tax funds collected in Ohio and held by local government entities, are placed with community banks, with a priority to have funds placed in Ohio banks. These funds thereby become available as loans to Ohio businesses and consumers, benefiting the communities where they were collected. Two hundred and fifty-three government entities disbursed throughout the state, and thirty-five banks headquartered in Ohio currently participate in the Star Plus program with new banks and entities joining each week.

Community banks can benefit from the program by using it as a stable and low-cost source of deposits, and as a tool to manage liquidity by moving funds both ways through the account. For a bank, participation is simple and routine. There is no initial cost or extraordinary paperwork involved in getting started or maintaining an account, it is just a matter of opening and servicing a business deposit account as the bank would for any other new customer.

State Treasurer Mandel has endorsed the principal of keeping funds collected within local communities working in those communities by supporting and promoting this program. It is important that all Ohio community banks respond and support this principal (a definitive principal of community banking!) by participating in the program. To open an account, request additional information, or obtain a copy of the presentation, you may contact Kyle Moseman at CBAO (kmoseman@cbao.com 614-846-2238) or Lindsay Stavola at StoneCastle Partners (lstavola@scpny.com 866-343-5516).