Dear John,

People of color and people in rural areas don't have the same access to credit from the Big Banks that wealthy corporations and money managers do.

That’s not just because major banks often don’t even bother to have branches in their communities, limiting choices, and creating banking desserts. It’s also because decades of expanding economic inequality makes loaning money to people who already have money less of a risk in the eyes of corporate for-profit banks.

Pointing out the potential to support underserved communities, Reps. Rashida Tlaib and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez introduced the Public Banking Act. This bill would create a regulatory framework to support nonprofit, public banks and set standards for “environmental justice, tenant protections, labor standards, democratic governance, and consumer data privacy.”

Public banking is an idea whose time has come. Send a message to Congress by becoming a grassroots co-sponsor of Reps. Rashida Tlaib and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Public Banking Act now!

Public banking is less well known in the United States, but throughout the world, there are over 900 public banks with over $49 trillion in assets.

The one public bank that currently exists in the United States is over a hundred years old. Since 1919, the Bank of North Dakota has been carrying out its mission to “promote agriculture, commerce, and industry” and “be helpful to and assist in the development of... financial institutions... within the State.”

Contributing millions of dollars to the state’s general fund each year, the Bank of North Dakota also offers low-cost banking to residents. During the 2008 financial bust, it stayed stable, while larger banks collapsed or, if deemed “too big to fail,” received massive taxpayer bailouts.

According to the Public Banking Institute, public banks “allow communities to declare their independence from risky, expensive, for-profit banks, and keep taxpayers’ money working at home.”

This can save money for local entities, while creating jobs, improving the economy, and most importantly providing a stabilizing influence to Wall Street’s infamous cycles of boom-and-bust.

Support the Public Banking Act. It’s time to lay the groundwork for banks that are more responsive to the needs of underserved communities.

Thank you for helping local communities create local alternatives to the Big Banks.

Robert Reich
Inequality Media Civic Action