Public Banking

Brown Bag Lunch Online Presentation with David Cobb, Outreach Director, California Public Banking Alliance :

Public banks are lending and depository institutions owned by a local agency, such as a city or county, that serve a non-profit public purpose and are governed by a mandate responsive to local needs. These banks leverage their deposit base and lending power to benefit residents with affordable housing, small business loans, modernization of public infrastructure, and other community needs. They differ from traditional financial institutions in that they prioritize serving the needs of the communities they are accountable to, rather than maximizing profits for private shareholders.

In 2019 Governor Newsom signed CA AB 857 into law, establishing a a 7-year pilot program to allow a local government to apply for a banking charter to establish a public bank. This would empower local governments in California with the ability to invest, lend, and provide banking services to their local communities, which would help keep taxpayer dollars invested in the local economy. There are currently efforts underway in Los Angeles, San Francisco, East Bay, and Sacramento.

David Cobb is a “people’s lawyer” who has sued corporate polluters, lobbied elected officials, run for political office, and been arrested for non-violent civil disobedience. He serves on the Board of the California Public Banking Alliance and is co-coordinator of the U.S. Solidarity Economy Network. David ran for attorney general of Texas in 2002, pledging to revoke the charters of corporations that routinely violate the law. In 2004 he was the Green Party nominee for president, and his demands for recounts in multiple states helped to launch the election integrity movement that ended electronic (black box) voting systems. He co-founded Move To Amend, and co-authored a proposed constitutional amendment to abolish the doctrine of “corporate personhood.” In 2016 he served as campaign manager for the Jill Stein/Ajamu Baraka presidential campaign.

The California Public Banking Alliance (CPBA) was founded in 2018 by a group of public banking advocates in California who are committed to establishing socially and environmentally responsible city and regional public banks. In 2019, members from Los Angeles, San Francisco, the East Bay, the South Bay, Santa Rosa, Santa Barbara, Humboldt-Eureka, the Central Coast, and San Diego worked together to write and pass AB 857, the California Public Banking Act. This law made California the first state in the country to formally allow the chartering of municipal public banks.

Since the passage of the California Public Banking Act, several local governments, including San Francisco, Los Angeles, Oakland, Berkeley, Richmond, Sacramento and the Central Coast, have passed legislation that will help establish public banks in their areas. We now have the opportunity to build a new, alternative banking system through locally-controlled, socially and environmentally responsible public banks. This will allow cities and counties to reclaim our public dollars and have a say in the financing of our communities.