San Jose Inside talks to California Public Banking Alliance organizer Jake Tonkel with South Bay Progressive Alliance.

Silicon Valley Bank opened in 1982 to serve startups shunned by big lenders, which saw the fledgling tech sector as innately risky. But Roger Smith and Bill Biggerstaff, the Wells Fargo defectors who founded the small bank with Stanford University professor Robert Medearis, had deep roots in the derring-do culture that would transform Santa Clara Valley into the world’s innovation capital.

Now with more than $60 billion in assets, Silicon Valley Bank long ago outgrew its provincial status. Still, those early days wove it into a rich tradition of community lenders that make decisions based on nuanced understanding of specialized markets and close relationships with borrowers.

Small banks have since become an endangered breed.

Once awash in neighborhood lenders and credit unions, the South Bay has lost the vast majority to mergers and acquisitions. Beloved local brands such as Saratoga National Bank, Peninsula Bank, San Jose National Bank and the Bank of Santa Clara gradually consolidated out of existence. Cupertino National Bank and Mid-Peninsula National Bank were rolled up into Greater Bay Bancorp in the 1990s. In 2007, the 41 Bancorps branches were slurped up by Wells Fargo. Borel Private Bank & Trust was sold to Boston Private Bank. CEFCU of Peoria, Illinois, acquired Valley Credit Union. The list goes on.

Continue reading on San Jose Inside.

Bohemian.com talks with Friends of Public Banking Santa Rosa organizer and Alliance member Shelly Browning. PQ: “The activities of the top big banks in fossil fuels and many other activities gives us limited, to no options regarding large, socially responsible banking options. We are truly stuck between Scylla and Charybdis until a public banking option is available.”

Too Big? Public bank advocates want to see cities invest in Main Street, not Wall Street.

For Shelly Browning, it’s been a long road from the Arab Spring to the Occupy Movement to Santa Rosa’s support of a public banking bill now under consideration in Sacramento. Browning’s a Santa Rosa small-business owner who’s been active on the public banking front for years and says her inspiration to get Santa Rosa to divest from Wall Street banks begins in Cairo’s Tahrir Square—and ends, perhaps, with an eventual “North Coast” public bank that would exist alongside Chase and other Wall Street banks.

She’s been meeting with city leaders to raise awareness of the public banking bill. Browning was moved, she says, by the small-businessman who was arrested in Tunisia for failing to have a permit in 2011, and whose suicide sparked protests in Egypt that then gave rise to the Occupy moment in the United States. The economic forces that gave rise to Tahrir Square are the same that are driving the push for public banking: All roads lead to Wall Street, while Main Street gets crushed.

Continue reading on Bohemian.com.

A California bill that would allow San Francisco to open a city-run bank cleared a key state Senate committee on Wednesday.

Assembly Bill 857 paves the path for local jurisdictions to launch a public bank, which San Francisco and other California cities have been exploring for more than a year. It’s been urged forward by the idea to take the city’s $12 billion budget out of major banks that are known to invest in things like private prisons and oil companies and invest in issues like affordable housing, renewable energy, and low-interest student loans.

“The public’s money should serve a public purpose, not line the pockets of Wall Street investors,” said Assemblymember David Chiu, who represents San Francisco and introduced the bill in March. “Time and time again, we have seen big banks invest billions of dollars of our money in institutions most Californians are opposed to.”

Continue reading on SF Weekly.

By Jennifer Wadsworth, Good Times. Silicon Valley Bank opened in 1982 to serve startups overlooked by big lenders, which saw the fledgling tech sector as inherently risky. Roger Smith and Bill Biggerstaff, the two Wells Fargo defectors who founded the small bank with Stanford professor Robert Medearis, had deep roots in a culture that would turn Santa Clara Valley into the innovation capital of the world.

With more than $60 billion in assets, Silicon Valley Bank has long since outgrown its small-bank status. Those early days make it part of a rich tradition of community lenders that make decisions based on deep knowledge of the local market and close relationships with borrowers, but small banks have become a dying breed.

Here in the Monterey Bay, residents do still have Santa Cruz Community Credit Union. And even though Santa Cruz County Bank is merging with Lighthouse Bank to create a local powerhouse with roughly $1 billion in assets and a location in Silicon Valley, it is still not, by any means, a huge conglomerate.

Continue reading on Good Times.

Our Revolution endorses California Assembly Bill 857, Public Banks. The resolution was introduced by Assembly members David Chiu (D – San Francisco) and Miguel Santiago (D – Los Angeles). The bill would make it easier for California cities and towns to establish their own public banks. Our Revolution endorses this bill because we believe that it will expand access to banking services to all citizens and provide a space where Californians can securely store their savings with the knowledge that their funds will not be redirected to risky, profit-seeking investments. Public banks can also provide valuable loan services to the community without levying obscene interest rates to the detriment of first-time homeowners and small business operators.

What would the bill do?

The bill would allow towns and cities across the state to charter their own banks. AB 857 would not actually establish a public bank; it would simply provide municipalities with the option to do so. Towns and cities across California could then independently make the decision about whether a public bank is right for their community’s needs.

What’s happening with the bill right now?

AB 857 has just been approved by the California State Assembly. It will now move to the State Senate, where it needs to be approved to move on to Governor Gavin Newsom’s desk for his signature.

Read on ourrevolution.com.

California’s Assembly Bill 857, now called the Public Banking Act, sponsored by the California Public Banking Alliance has made it through three committees, including the “notoriously difficult” Assembly Appropriations Committee, and is now up for a full vote on Assembly floor. Despite heavy opposition from Wall Street’s biggest banks, the bill advanced with “unprecedented” support from over 100 major cities, unions, and grassroots organizations. The Chair of the Assembly Appropriations Committee, Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez, became the latest co-author to sign onto the bill, saying:

“This measure is long overdue. We need to take the profit out of banking in order to invest in our communities that have been left behind by Wall Street. This approach to public banking allows our local governments to explore forming their own local or regional public banks.”

Joint author Assemblymember Miguel Santiago tweeted, “No one works harder to fight Wall Street and pass the Public Banking Act than this incredible coalition. #AB857 #PublicBanksNow.”

The tireless efforts of advocates has made it possible for public banking to enter the mainstream and it’s fast becoming common knowledge. Assemblymember Santiago said in his press release: “Californians know Wall Street is using our money to prop up corporations that run contrary to our values – like the NRA and fossil fuel companies – and we are fed up. Big banks shouldn’t underestimate the power of everyday people, hardworking families, and grassroots organizations to change the status quo.”

Trinity Tran, founding member of California Public Banking Alliance, added:

“AB 857’s advancement to the Assembly floor marks a pivotal shift in banking as a public utility rather than a private interest. It’s the solution we need for our cities to recapture the billions we pay to private Wall Street banks, so that we can invest in sustaining our communities.”

Continue reading on Public Banking Institute.

Santa Clara County’s board of supervisors voted unanimously to study how they might create a county-owned public bank, San Jose Spotlight reports. The move follows one by San Jose, the county seat and largest city, whose council members have also signed on, at least tentatively, to the idea.

Why the hesitation? Because publicly owned banks aren’t yet legal in California. Assembly Bill 857, which would allow cities and counties within the state to operate banks for the first time in history, is still making its way through the legislative process. In San Jose, councilmembers argued that the city should be “proactive … and strongly consider how this bill could benefit the 10th-largest city in America.”

AB 857 is endorsed by 100 organizations across California, according to the California Public Banking Alliance, which pushed for the legislation.

Continue reading on Next City.

Nomi Prins pens this powerful piece on why #AB857 and public banks can help curb abusive big banks. As a former Goldman Sachs executive, she has witnessed Wall Street’s recklessness firsthand and understands why it’s important to enable localities to create public banks to use local funds for public good, not private profit.

By Nomi Prins, Truthout. For far too long, Wall Street has wreaked havoc on people’s personal financial stability and our economy as a whole. I should know. As a managing director at Goldman Sachs in the early 2000s, I witnessed firsthand how the banking industry lined their pockets at the expense of customers.

Not much has changed since then. After the mortgage fraud crisis of 2007-08, the biggest banks were slapped with $216 billion in fines – a drop in the bucket for firms that raked in a cool $237 billion last year alone. Infamously, not a single banker went to jail. Today, Wall Street banks continue to commit fraud, enjoy front-row lobbying seats in Washington, write legislation on their own behalf, and maintain easy access to credit courtesy of the Federal Reserve.

The Dodd-Frank Act of 2010 placed some regulations on banks’ riskier bets. But, crucially, that reform failed to divide banks into two entities: one dealing with people’s FDIC insured deposits, and the other able to create complex securities and engage in derivatives trading using our deposits as collateral. Ten years after the financial crisis, our money is still very much at risk of being gambled away.

Continue reading on Truthout.

By Mark Anderson – Staff Writer, Sacramento Business Journal. California lawmakers have considered allowing public banks several times, starting in the depths of the financial crisis.

The city of Los Angeles and the city and county of San Francisco on Tuesday approved support for an assembly bill that would allow local governments to form their own public banks.

Having the two highest-profile cities in the state show support is a sign that a “coalition is coming together,” said Jonathan Underland, communications director for Assemblyman Miguel Santiago, D-Los Angeles, who, along with Assemblyman David Chiu, D-San Francisco, introduced Assembly Bill 857 in March.

“We want cities and counties to have the ability to create a public bank if that makes the most sense for their constituents,” Underland said. “Now, we don’t have the ability to even consider it. It is a local control bill. It would allow municipalities to experiment with this. It gives cities the opportunity to explore this.”

Continue reading on Sacramento Business Journal.