Economic & Trade
Link Deposit Program
The Link Deposit Program was created in 1993. The stated purpose of the program is to increase access to business capital for the states certified minority-owned and women-owned businesses. Under the program, certified businesses can obtain reduced interest rate loans from participating financial institutions.
The State Treasurer is authorized to use up to $50 million of short-term state treasury surplus funds. These funds are deposited with public depositories as certificate of deposits on the condition that the public depository make "qualifying loans" under the program. These funds are used to purchase certificates of deposit (CD's) equaling the total amount of money loaned to certified business.
The state forgoes up to two percent in interest on the CDs and passes along the savings to the public depository with the condition that the depository reduces up to two percent in the interest rate for the loan recipients.
