Major Characteristics of Florida's Public Deposits Program

• Protection from loss of public deposit principal and accrued interest as of the date a Qualified Public Depository ("QPD") fails on all public funds deposited in compliance with the program.
  
  
• QPDs collateralize public deposits after the fact. Each month QPDs compute their average daily balance of public deposits and calculate their required collateral. This information must be reported to Florida's Chief Financial Officer by the 15th of the following month.
  
  
• Florida's governmental units, as public depositors, have a number of QPDs to choose from for the deposit of their public funds.
  
  
• Public depositors have minimal responsibilities and reporting requirements. Public depositors' primary responsibilities are:
• Use QPDs for all deposit accounts including savings, checking, certificate of deposit, and money market deposit accounts.
• Complete a Public Deposit Identification and Acknowledgment Form at the time of opening a deposit account at a QPD and retain the form as a valuable record.
• File the Public Depositor Annual Report to the Chief Financial Officer by November 30th each year.
• Flexible collateral requirements. QPDs have a range of assets such as cash, marketable securities, and Federal Home Loan Bank letters of credit to use as collateral. QPDs can qualify to pledge collateral at a 25% or 50% level if their overall financial condition is strong enough.
  
  
• Administration of the Public Deposits Program is vested in Florida's Chief Financial Officer. Chapter 280, Florida Statutes, outlines a broad range of powers to be used in managing the program.
  
  
• Entrance into, participation in, and exit from the Program are based on the overall financial condition of each QPD.