About the State Treasury

About the Oregon State Treasury

Financial leadership today for Oregon’s tomorrow.

To provide financial stewardship for Oregon.

The State Treasury is the State of Oregon’s financial hub and is a sophisticated business operation. The office provides a menu of investment, bonding and banking services to serve citizens, public retirees and local governments including schools, cities and counties.

It is also important to point out what the Treasury does not do: It does not collect taxes (that is a function of the Oregon Department of Revenue, and nor does it oversee the drafting state budget, which is guided by the Legislative Fiscal Office

All of the functions of the State Treasury are designed to serve clients and the public, and those systems are constantly re-evaluated to ensure that services are rendered in an efficient and cost-effective way.

The Treasury runs like a business because it is a business, and the entire budget for the Oregon State Treasury is derived from payments for the low-cost services it provides, which saves Oregonians money.

There are five divisions in the Oregon State Treasury, which work in concert to fulfill the mission of providing financial stewardship for Oregon. Those are the Executive, Finance, Investment, Debt Management, and Information Systems Divisions. The State Treasury also includes the Oregon 529 College Savings Network.

OREGONIANS — The Treasurer’s office directly serves individual Oregonians by helping families save for higher education and job training with the 529 College Savings Program, and by promoting financial education, outreach efforts and the Reading is an Investment program. In addition, the State Treasurer’s office provides indirect benefits to Oregonians by generating investment income for Oregon, and by protecting bank accounts belonging to schools and other public institutions.

STATE AGENCIES — The Treasury is the state’s central bank and largest financial institution, and all Oregon state government agencies are Treasury customers. They receive cash management and debt management services, including check processing, electronic banking, deposits, bonding assistance and investment of cash in the $10.7 billion Oregon Short Term Fund.

LOCAL GOVERNMENTS — All Oregon local government agencies can use the Treasury for their banking needs and to invest in the Oregon Short Term Fund, and there were 1,160 different government entities that did so as of Dec. 31, 2008. So that local governments can deposit funds in local banks, the Treasurer’s office protects the assets of public institutions from the risk of bank failures through the collateralization program. Through that program, all banks holding public deposits have to help pay back public institutions to prevent losses in the event of a bank failure.

OREGON COMMUNITIES AND NONPROFITS — The Treasury helps secure low-cost financing for important community projects and makes capital available to Oregon banks, which can turn around an lend that money in their communities. The State Treasurer’s office also helps communities across Oregon save money by coordinating low-cost loans for building schools, roads, and other critical public infrastructure.

SMALL BUSINESSES — The State Treasurer’s office promotes healthy economic growth in Oregon by overseeing efforts to invest in Oregon, including the investment of Lottery proceeds through the Oregon Growth Account as seed capital to help innovative Oregon ventures.