Western Banker July/August 2022

Public Bank Advocates Charge Ahead

By Jason Lane, Vice President and Deputy Director of Government Relations, California Bankers Association

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ast month, the San Francisco working group estab lished to form a public bank finalized the group’s membership and hired public banking consultant HR&A Advisors to formulate a plan to establish

• Achieve fiscal stability within the first three years. • Provide loan support to underserved sectors of the local economy. • Address local infrastructure needs. • Reduce local government dependency on Wall Street banks. • Decrease local fossil fuel and other harmful in vestments. • Partner with local financial institutions to the eco nomic and social benefit of all. • Mitigate economic inequity in the region. • Serve as a model for public banks around the state and the country. The purported goals, as listed in the report which was au thored by a former Senior Policy Advisor to the Rhode Island General Treasurer, is to make loans to local small businesses, in cooperation with local community development financial institutions (CDFIs) and local banks, provide capital to non profit affordable housing developers for property acquisition, and provide lending for small scale climate change projects. The projections detailed in the report show that with a $40 million investment from the cities of Oakland, Berkeley, Richmond, and Alameda County, the bank will lend over

San Francisco’s first public bank.

According to a news release issued by the working group:

Last June, the Board of Supervisors took an important step towards setting up a public bank for the city by unani mously passing the Reinvest in San Francisco ordinance introduced by Supervisor Dean Preston. Another dramatic step came on April 15, 2022, with the first official meeting of the Working Group, composed of financial profession als and community representatives charged with prepar ing a business plan for the bank. After being approved by the Board of Supervisors, the plan will be submitted to the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation in Sacramento. Other members of the group include and one executive from the banking industry and one from the credit union industry, in addition to com munity development and consumer protection advocates. Across the bay, the Public Bank Eastbay group, a coopera tive venture among the cities of Oakland, Berkeley, and Richmond and Alameda County released a robust viability study to:

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