Congratulations to our Heartland Agribusiness team for their recently announced Preferred Lending Partner (PLP) designation by the Farm Service Agency. The U.S. Department of Agriculture now recognizes Heartland Bank as a trusted partner in the FSA Loan Guarantee Program. Much like Heartland Bank’s Preferred Lender status with the Small Business Administration, the Agribusiness team’s PLP status means that we can offer more financing options and more control for our ag clients, by offering a more streamlined application and approval process with faster turn-around times.

This month’s Employee Spotlight features another respected colleague and self-motivated member of the Heartland Bank team, Wilson Road Lead Universal Banker (UB), Kayla Collins. In her role as Lead UB, Kayla supervises the CSR (Client Service Representatives) line, coaches employees, builds relationships with customers and takes care of operational responsibilities.

The Ohio Statewide Development Corporation awarded Heartland Bank with the OSDC Bank of the Year Award at the Annual Meeting and Awards Luncheon, held on January 26, 2016, at the McGowan Loft at Copious in the Brewery District.

Word started brewing early last week that something exciting was percolating over at Heartland Bank Ambassador Greg Ubert’s Crimson Cup Coffee & Tea. The headline in Columbus Business First read, “America's top coffee roaster is from Columbus”. ThisWeek community newspaper’s headline read ‘Crimson Cup gets Toast from Roast’. Both publications announced that Roast Magazine (the trusted source of information on the art, science and business of coffee) had just named Columbus-based Crimson Cup as the 2016 Macro Roaster of the Year.

Heartland Bank was recently honored by the NAACP for their involvement in the Back to School, Stay in School Program. Heartland’s series of financial literacy workshops in schools and communities centers for families participating in the Back to School, Stay in School Program help to reinforce the values of this great program, and was one of the reasons for the bank being selected for this award.