Today marks the first missed paycheck for federal workers affected by the partial government shutdown. A Jenks-based bank is covering its customers’ bills.
First Oklahoma Bank serves about 10,000 people in the state. Some won’t be able to pay their bills due to the government shutdown, so the bank is helping out.
Tom Bennett: Our policy is we will treat their checking account as if the check arrived. if they should become overdrawn, we will pay their checks and we will not charge them for it.
That’s Tom Bennett Jr, the bank’s chairman and co-CEO. He came up with the policy during the last government shutdown.
Tom Bennett: we wanted to do what we could to be helpful for folks who have been negatively impacted through no fault of their own. They can go ahead and make their house payments, buy groceries… you know, the things people do in living their lives.
Bennett hopes the government will reopen soon, but, in the meantime, he’s encouraging anyone affected by the shutdown to ask about their bank’s policy.