Message from the President
J. Michael Romey,
President/CEO of Citizens National Bank
The Transaction Account Guarantee program, known as TAG, expired Dec. 31. This program, which provided temporary unlimited deposit insurance for non interest-bearing transaction accounts, was put in place in October 2008 as part of the Dodd-Frank financial reform act. The idea behind it was to reassure small businesses, municipalities, hospitals and others that their payroll and other operational expense accounts were safe in the face of the financial crises the country was fighting at that time. At year end, the FDIC decided not to extend its TAG program and insured deposits have reverted back to the previous limit of $250,000 for each ownership category.
Since Citizens National Bank has always been well capitalized and our earnings have been stellar each and every year since the Great Recession, our customers need have no concerns about the ending of this program. In fact, we have been recognized the past three years by our industry group, the Independent Community Bankers Association (ICBA) as one of the 400 top performers. We have always been conservative in our banking practices, and in addition our markets and economies seemed to have fared better than others. We have opened offices in new markets and been able to grow our loan portfolios while maintaining strong margins and underwriting standards.
Rest assured, our clients are banking with one of the safest and most successful banks in the country and even those deposits over the FDIC limit are backed by our substantial capital reserves. Additionally for those customers who have need for securities or are concerned about FDIC insurance, we now offer three products that allow for multi-million dollar coverage working solely with our bank. I’m confident in the continued safety and success of our bank and you can be to.
