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With $10 trillion in assets at their collective disposal, big banks like Chase and Wells Fargo could do a lot of good. Yet, despite being 鈥渢oo big to fail,鈥� these banks fail people every day. Whether it鈥檚 the persistent use of , their , or their insistent investment in and industries, these formidable financial institutions have a corrosive influence on our country.

Yet, in spite of this, local governments put their assets鈥攖he collective wealth of communities collected through taxes鈥攊n the hands of these institutions. In New York City alone, is handled by private banks every year. While the city鈥檚 assets sit in the corporate coffers of these Wall Street staples, the banks are free to invest them at their discretion. Their sole goal: pump up their profits. The result is that public dollars may be invested in projects that act against the public good, such as speculative real estate, private prisons, and fossil fuels.

To address these and other overlapping injustices, New York City鈥檚 , a community-based organization dedicated to advancing economic justice, has coordinated the since 2018 with the end goal of investing city dollars in projects that would address community needs. Over four years, the coalition has come to comprise dozens of community organizations from across the city, working on projects as diverse as climate justice, affordable housing, and worker empowerment. Its primary focus is to advance city- and state-level legislation that will allow its visions to manifest.

鈥淭o do something as big and bold as a public bank, you really have to have a movement,鈥� says Andy Morrison, associate director of the New Economy Project, 鈥減articularly in New York, where Wall Street lobbyists are numerous and powerful.鈥�

Building that movement hasn鈥檛 been difficult. A public bank would offer benefits to justice-focused organizations of all shapes, sizes, missions, and visions. After all, as the argument is laid out in co-produced by the New Economy Project and , a policy think tank, public banking is a key step toward community self-determination in housing, investments, and land use. This would put a community鈥檚 fate at their fingertips and enable them to address compounding crises and injustices.

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One of those ongoing injustices is the lack of access to banks and financial services for many New Yorkers.

Albert Scott, board president of the , which is a member of the Public Bank NYC coalition, says the organization joined the movement 鈥渢o address the banking desert in Brownsville and East New York.鈥� The lack of banking options puts the members of these neighborhoods at a severe disadvantage. These two communities have just nine bank branches between them, compared with 47 in the Upper West Side and Manhattan, says Hannah Anousheh, staff coordinator of the East New York Community Land Trust. A public bank would alleviate this inequity and others like it that stem from the economic logic of big banks.

To make a public bank a reality, the coalition is pushing to change the state鈥檚 finance, banking, and municipal laws through the . This act has been introduced to the State Assembly and Senate, but despite receiving 87 co-sponsors in both houses in 2021 and 94 in 2022, the legislation died in committee during both sessions. But Sen. James Sanders Jr., the prime sponsor, plans to reintroduce the bill in 2023. 鈥淲e will keep on fighting until we establish public banks for everyone鈥檚 benefit,鈥� the senator said in an email.

Once passed, this bill would allow local governments to 鈥渇orm and control public banks鈥� to hold public funds, which could then be administered in support of the public good. One important point needs to be made clear: The public bank wouldn鈥檛 open its own retail branches. There鈥檚 nothing in the act that explicitly prohibits a public bank from going brick-and-mortar, but the coalition envisions something different.

A public bank would instead invest its holdings in credit unions and community development financial institutions (CDFIs), says Linda Levy, board member and former CEO of the , another coalition member. Such investment would increase their 鈥渃apacity to grow and serve more communities.鈥�

Which credit unions and CDFIs receive investments would ultimately be decided by the public bank based on its own policies. These would in turn be shaped by banking professionals hired under the direction of the bank鈥檚 board. Three of the board鈥檚 directors would be appointed by the mayor, two by the city council, and one by the city treasurer. Each of those officials would be required to nominate at least one independent director and one director with community banking experience鈥攄efined as having served in a leadership role at a credit union, CDFI, or similar institution.

The six directors who seed the board would then be responsible for selecting an additional three to five directors with the intention of maximizing board diversity, including with representation from community-based organizations and labor unions. In a large, diverse city like New York, the board, at its discretion, may ultimately have as many as 15 directors.

The board would then be responsible for shaping the governing documents and defining the priorities of the public bank. The Public Bank NYC coalition members hope the priorities will address the concerns of underserved and underbanked communities, which the coalition went to painstaking lengths to define and document through the distillation of community feedback collected across town halls and public forums. These priorities are codified in a set of four pillars: financial justice, housing justice, worker justice, and climate justice.

On the ground, that would look like strengthening community banks, investing in affordable and democratically structured housing models, bolstering worker-owned cooperatives, and supporting community-owned clean energy projects, among other initiatives. However, when the public bank is one day established, the coalition can鈥檛 simply stand by and hope the board follows through and enshrines these priorities in its governing documents. To get them reflected and ensure accountability to the public鈥檚 desires, 鈥渋t鈥檒l take continued organizing,鈥� the New Economy Project鈥檚 Morrison says.

However, if the public bank follows through on these goals, it could spark a surge of solutions to an assortment of social problems. 鈥淭his is economic legislation that can actually help us and benefit us,鈥� Scott says. 鈥淭hey鈥檒l be putting money in the CDFIs that have a track record of helping communities like ours and have a physical presence in the community.鈥�

The Lower East Side People鈥檚 Federal Credit Union is one such institution. Levy makes it clear that a public bank would boost its ability to benefit its members and the surrounding community. 鈥淩ight now, we are limited in our ability to open branches in more neighborhoods due to a lack of capital,鈥� she says. 鈥淚nvestments would increase our capital, allowing us to accept more member deposits and serve additional communities.鈥�

Expanding banking access for low-income communities, immigrant communities, and communities of color is one of the central objectives of the Public Bank NYC coalition. This is, presently, one of the only ways to address the banking deserts in places like East New York. But the public bank would do more than that. By putting the public funds in CDFIs and credit unions, the funds would likely be invested in efforts to address social problems, efforts that have struggled to secure funding from conventional banks.

鈥淭raditional banks are reluctant to support alternative housing models like community land trusts,鈥� says Anousheh. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e not providing the low interest loans that will allow us to get to the affordability levels we need. But if we had a public bank, it could provide loans for non-speculative housing, like community land trusts and mutual housing associations.鈥�

But there鈥檚 no guarantee a public bank would function this way. The only operating public bank governed by a city or state government in the United States, the Bank of North Dakota, has a mixed history of supporting the public good.

While the Bank of North Dakota helped small-business owners secure more PPP loans than in any other state, the bank has also invested heavily in and even loaned almost $10 million to local law enforcement efforts to break up the protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline at the Standing Rock reservation. Among the many structural oversights that made such investments possible is the lack of even a single Native American director on the bank鈥檚 board, despite the state having per capita Indigenous populations in the nation.

To avoid reproducing the toxic practices of traditional banking, there鈥檚 a panoply of provisions in the current New York bill that makes Morrison believe it to be 鈥渢he strongest bill of its kind in the country.鈥� The bank鈥檚 board would be intended to reflect the population of the chartering city with directors representing community organizations. Public banks in the state would be required to abide by the United Nations鈥� Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People and include representatives from Indigenous communities. An advisory committee would provide additional oversight. And the chartering municipality could choose to prohibit investments in fossil fuels, private prisons, and other industries detrimental to the public good.

Of course, with two consecutive years of death-in-committee for the legislation, it might be a while before it passes. But already there鈥檚 a good deal of support for the public bank outside the coalition. The New York City Council unanimously passed calling on the state legislature to pass the act, and 82 elected officials, including New York鈥檚 comptroller, with the same call.

With all this support, Morrison is confident progress will be made in the upcoming legislative session. Their biggest obstacle, he says, are leaders in the legislature who are influenced by Wall Street lobbying. But this blockage is just another part of what Morrison says has been a massive public policy failure on the part of elected officials to address a crisis in New York.

There is a solution, Morrison says, adding, 鈥淭hey just don鈥檛 want to rock the boat.鈥�

Elected officials might not want to shake things up, but the Public Bank NYC coalition has no such qualms. They know what a public bank would mean for their communities. So, as Morrison puts it, they鈥檙e 鈥済oing to go all in鈥� to win.