Oklahoma Lieutenant Governor Jari Askins - Oklahoma Linked Deposit Review Board

Oklahoma Linked Deposit Review Board

Office of State Treasurer
State Capitol, Room 217
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma 73105

Telephone: 405-521-3191
Fax: 405-521-4993
www.treasurer.ok.gov

Board Membership and Duties

The Oklahoma Small Business Linked Deposit Act (Act) created the Oklahoma Small Business Linked Deposit Program (Program) which is administered by the State Treasurer and is designed to help small businesses qualify for certain loans at favorable rates and can be used for a broad range of business and types of industry. The Act also created the Linked Deposit Review Board to oversee the Program.

The Linked Deposit Review Board consists of seven (7) members as follows:

State Treasurer Scott Meacham, Chair Tim Allen, Designee	Lieutenant Governor Jari Askins Margaret Kletke, Designee
State Auditor and Inspector Steve Burrage Susan Putnam, Designee	Governor Brad Henry Nelda Kirk, Designee
State Insurance Commissioner Kim Holland Craig Knutson, Designee	Amy Polonchek, Director, Department of Commerce Sandy Pratt, Designee
	Mick Thompson, Bank Commissioner Rick McSwain, Designee

Briefly, the statutory duties of the Board are to:

Insure eligibility and compliance with the linked deposit program by lenders and applicants;
Review applications and make recommendations for approval or rejection of a linked deposit loan package;
Adopt and administer a reporting plan whereby the use and economic impact of jobs created and saved by linked deposit loans shall be reviewed and analyzed on an annual basis; and
Prepare an annual report summarizing these findings.

Under the Small Business Linked Deposit Program any small business organized for profit, including business related to tourism, doing business in and from the State of Oklahoma which employs not more than 200 employees or has gross annual receipts of not more than $4 million is eligible to apply. Any industrial park that has been certified by the Oklahoma Department of Commerce as meeting minimum guidelines necessary for an industrial park is also eligible to apply.

A small business may request funding of up to $1 million. The limit on the amount of funding an industrial park may request is $6 million. The amount that will be funded is based on the number of jobs that will be created or preserved because of receipt of a low-interest loan.

Successful applicants for the Program receive private loans through local financial institutions at a reduced interest rate. The loans are funded through the placement of certificates of deposit at the participating financial institution, which bear interest rates of up to three percent below the standard rate. In effect, these savings are "passed on" to the borrowers participating in the program. Because the participating financial institutions must fully collateralize the certificates of deposit received from the Treasurer, there is absolutely no risk of loss of public funds, even in the event the borrower defaults on his or her linked deposit loan.