Exhibit 31.1

                                  CERTIFICATION
         Pursuant to Section 302 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934

I, David Z. Richards, certify that:

1. I have reviewed  this  quarterly  report on Form 10-QSB of Nittany  Financial
Corp. (the "Registrant").

2. Based on my  knowledge,  this  quarterly  report  does not contain any untrue
statement of a material fact or omit to state a material fact  necessary to make
the statements made, in light of the  circumstances  under which such statements
were made, not  misleading  with respect to the period covered by this quarterly
report;

3.  Based  on my  knowledge,  the  financial  statements,  and  other  financial
information  included in this quarterly  report,  fairly present in all material
respects the financial  condition,  results of operations  and cash flows of the
registrant as of, and for, the periods presented in this quarterly report;

4.  The  Registrant's  other  certifying  officers  and  I are  responsible  for
establishing and maintaining  disclosure  controls and procedures (as defined in
Exchange Act Rules 13a-15(e) and 15d-15(e) for the Registrant and we have:


     (a)  Designed  such  disclosure  controls  and  procedures,  or caused such
          disclosure   controls  and   procedures  to  be  designed   under  our
          supervision, to ensure that material information relating to the small
          business  issuer,  including its  consolidated  subsidiaries,  is made
          known to us by others within those entities,  particularly  during the
          period in which this report is being prepared;


     (b) (intentionally omitted)


     (c)  Evaluated the effectiveness of the Registant's disclosure controls and
          procedures  and  presented  in this report our  conclusions  about the
          effectiveness of the disclosure controls and procedures, as of the end
          of the period covered by this report based on such evaluation; and


     (d)  Disclosed  in this  report  any  change in the  Registrant's  internal
          control over financial reporting that occurred during the Registrant's
          most  recent  fiscal  quarter  that  has  materially  affected,  or is
          reasonably  likely to materially  affect,  the  Registrant's  internal
          control over financial reporting; and

5. The Registrant's other certifying officers and I have disclosed, based on our
most recent  evaluation of internal  control over  financial  reporting,  to the
Registrant's auditors and the audit committee of Registrant's board of directors
(or persons fulfilling the equivalent function):

     (a)  all significant  deficiencies and material weaknesses in the design or
          operation of internal  controls  over  financial  reporting  which are
          reasonably  likely to  adversely  affect the  Registrant's  ability to
          record, process, summarize and report financial information; and

     (b)  any fraud, whether or not material,  that involves management or other
          employees  who  have  a  significant  role  in the  issuer's  internal
          controls over financial reporting.


Date:  05/13/04                     /s/ David Z. Richards
                                    --------------------------------------------
                                    David Z. Richards
                                    President