Carnegie exploring new banking options

Carnegie borough officials say the municipality will likely switch banks from PNC to Washington Financial Bank in order to take advantage of the lower fees and more favorable interest rates it offers. Carnegie council passed a motion by a unanimous vote on Feb. 11 authorizing Borough Manager Steve Beuter to gather information from the bank, which is based in Washington, Pa.

Councilperson Phil Boyd, who chairs the borough’s finance committee, said Washington Financial is currently attempting to grow its municipal banking business while PNC is not. PNC representatives themselves, he said, even suggested the borough partner with a new institution.

“It’s our intention to do some due diligence at this point by way of our borough manager to determine just exactly how difficult this transition will be and make sure that it’s not so burdensome for the borough that it would exhaust any benefit that we would receive from it,” Boyd said during the meeting.

Boyd said the borough could earn significantly more interest by banking with Washington Financial.

One of the more critical services that municipal banks offer is the issuing of tax anticipation notes, which fund governments until such time that they begin to collect taxes.

A timeline for the transition has not yet been established.