Where you choose to bank matters.  That’s the message that the Independent Community Bankers of America (ICBA) and Heartland Bank are sending loud and clear throughout April, which is ICBA Community Banking Month.  Consumers have the power to make change happen at the community level by aligning with their community bank and putting their money to work in the neighborhood that they call home. 

“Your choice of bank is your vote on where your money goes.  Is it reinvested back into your own community, or is it sent off to a banking hub in another state or halfway around the world?” said Scott Heitkamp, ICBA’s chairman and President & CEO of Value Bank Texas of Corpus Christi, Texas.  “When you deposit funds in your community bank, that money is redistributed back in the community in the form of loans to residents and entrepreneurs.”

From local farms to craftsmen to startups, banking locally with a community bank connects you to your community and your neighbors and gives everyone a stake in its financial success.  Here are a few reasons why:

• Community Banks respect the communities they serve by doing right by their customers and community.  Community Banks and local communities have symbiotic relationships – one cannot thrive without the other.
• Community banks are relationship lenders.  They know their customers and understand their financial needs, unlike larger institutions that take a transaction-based approach to banking.
• Community banks understand and celebrate local economies.  As a small business themselves, community banks are an unequivocal resource for entrepreneurs looking to launch a local business.  A study from several Federal Reserve Banks found that small business that apply for loans with community banks are the most successful and most satisfied. 
• Community banks give back.  Serving local communities is second nature to community banks.

According to Heartland Bank CEO G. Scott McComb, "America's Community Banks are the backbone of small business, community funding, and philanthropy. Doing right by providing the much needed advice, and helping our clients plan for the future one generation after another, is our stated mission." 

From local farms to craftsmen to startups and more, banking locally with a community bank connects you to your neighborhood and gives everyone a stake in financial success.  Stop in and see a friendly Heartland Banker at any one of our 13 central Ohio locations today.