Category: California Public Banking Alliance

Fresno

A City-Owned Bank? Fresno Enters the Chat on Public Banking

Fresno just entered the public banking chat! And the community is driving it. From local organizers to small-business owners, folks packed the West Fresno Center to keep public dollars working for Fresno’s working families. @fresnoland has the story.

https://fresnoland.org/2025/09/29/fresno-public-bank/

Huge thanks to every community member that showed up and spoke at the listening session, and to the lead groups who coordinated the event with us: End Poverty in California, The Academy of Financial Education, The Central Valley Urban Institute, CVIIC, Education & Leadership Foundation.

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CPBA State Bank 2025

New CPBA Brief! California Needs a State Public Bank

California is facing budget deficits, federal rollbacks, and deep cuts to housing, climate, CDFI funding, and small business programs. Just as our communities need support, the federal government is pulling back. Californians cannot depend on the Trump Administration to help solve these problems. We must assert our State’s authority to manage our substantial financial resources for addressing critical needs. For nearly 40 million Californians, the time to act is now.

The California Public Banking Alliance has released a new State Public Bank Brief to show a path forward. A State Public Bank would keep California’s money working for Californians by protecting public funds, expanding credit to our communities where it is needed and lowering borrowing costs.

View and download here: California Needs a State Public Bank

Local public banks are already moving forward across the state. City-and-regional-level public banks keep dollars circulating in neighborhoods, supporting small businesses, housing, and community projects. A State Public Bank creates an ecosystem of public financial infrastructure. It brings the strength of the world’s fourth-largest economy, pooling deposits, providing liquidity, and technical assistance to help local banks launch and grow. The state bank provides the scale, support, and reach to finance housing, climate resilience, and infrastructure on a statewide level.

This is how California can build lasting economic power and resilience in the face of a hostile federal administration!

Join the fight and be part of the team building the State Bank campaign. This is only the starting point. Legislation is still being developed, and core details on capitalization, governance, and oversight will be shaped with coalition leaders, stakeholders, and legislative champions. Our aim is simple and urgent: build a strong, lasting movement and a financial system that truly serves the people of California!

Volunteer with us! 

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Public Banking in California: Learning from the Bank of North Dakota

Our new brief, “Public Banking in California: Learning from the Bank of North Dakota,” with the University of Michigan is out! This is the most comprehensive U.S. economic report focused on CA public banks, and the first academic, data-driven analysis to use the BND as a case study for how public banks can save money, expand affordable housing and access to capital for small businesses, and help close racial wealth gaps.

We would like to thank Terri Friedline and the University of Michigan team, Trinity Tran and Rick Girling with the California Public Banking AllianceErin Kilmer-Neel and the Beneficial State Foundation team, Bianca Blomquist and the Small Business Majority team, and Lydia Casmier at Demos.

Our goal with this report was to give California’s public banking movement a data-driven foundation. It provides clear, evidence-based findings that support what we as advocates have been saying for years and helps lay the groundwork for policy frameworks to establish public banks across the state.

Read it here! Public Banking in California: Learning from the Bank of North Dakota
Landing page on Poverty Solutions.

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Rashida Panel

Watch the Public Banking Panel Recording ft. Rep. Rashida Tlaib + CPBA’s Trinity Tran

Thanks to everyone who joined The New School’s Public Banking Panel featuring Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib and CPBA’s Trinity Tran! Watch the recording and hear about how Public Banking and Guaranteed Income can work together to tackle income inequality, provide immediate relief, and build long-term structural change!

Watch the discussion: https://vimeo.com/1094198348/1982f4784b

Our team answered 50 questions from pre-registration and the live chat. Read them here!
https://mailchi.mp/newschool/2025-june-public-banking-research-virtual-roundtable-thank-you?e=19280256d6

Thank you to all panelists:

Representative Rashida Tlaib, U.S. Representative, 12th Congressional District of Michigan

Terri Friedline, Professor of Social Work, University of Michigan

Darrick Hamilton, University Professor and Founding Director, Institute on Race, Power and Political Economy, The New School

Amy Castro, Co-Founder and Faculty Director, Center for Guaranteed Income Research, and Associate Professor, University of Pennsylvania

Trinity Tran, Executive Director, Co-Founder, and Lead Organizer, California Public Banking Alliance

Graham Steele, Academic Fellow, Rock Center for Corporate Governance, Stanford Law School/Stanford Graduate School of Business, and Fellow, Financial Regulation, Roosevelt Institute

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Join Us for a Public Banking Webinar with Rep. Rashida Tlaib and CPBA’s Trinity Tran!

Public Banking: Financial Infrastructure for Guaranteed Income and a Just Economy
Tuesday, June 17 | 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM PT | Zoom

Register Online via Zoom

As federal support for climate and infrastructure shrinks, cities are turning to bold tools to build local economic power. Public banking is one of them.

Join us for a virtual roundtable, featuring our very own Trinity Tran, on how public banks can support guaranteed income programs and help build more inclusive, community-rooted economies. The event will spotlight new research from the Institute on Race, Power and Political Economy at The New School and feature leaders in public banking, economic justice, and guaranteed income.

Featuring
:

  • Representative Rashida Tlaib, U.S. Representative, 12th Congressional District of Michigan
  • Terri Friedline, Professor of Social Work, University of Michigan
  • Darrick Hamilton, University Professor and Founding Director, Institute on Race, Power and Political Economy, The New School
  • Amy Castro, Co-Founder and Faculty Director, Center for Guaranteed Income Research, and Associate Professor, University of Pennsylvania
  • Trinity Tran, Co-Founder and Lead Organizer, California Public Banking Alliance
  • Graham Steele, Academic Fellow, Rock Center for Corporate Governance, Stanford Law School/Stanford Graduate School of Business, and Fellow, Financial Regulation, Roosevelt Institute

Hosted by: The Institute on Race, Power and Political Economy, The New School.

Read and download two new reports on how public banking can support economic equity and strengthen financial infrastructure for guaranteed income programs.

Public Banking A Public Option to Build an Inclusive and Sustainable Economy includes a brief overview of Public Bank LA.

How Public Banking Could Support Guaranteed Income includes a mention of the California Public Banking Alliance and CalAccount.

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CPBA Featured in New Demos + NEP Report on Public Banks and Racial Equity

At a national convening in Washington, D.C., marking the launch of Demos and New Economy Project’s report, Public Banks for Racial Equity: Democratizing Finance to Build Community Wealth,CPBA’s Executive Director Trinity Tran and Legislative Director Sylvia Chi presented Dispatches From the Field: Wins, Lessons, What’s Next for California, a look at the statewide public banking movement’s milestones and future trajectory.

The report covers the California Public Banking Alliance’s leadership in passing the California Public Banking Act (AB 857), the first legislation in the nation to create a pathway for municipal public banks. CPBA’s work is cited as a model for how public financial institutions can “move public dollars out of extractive banking institutions and into investments that benefit working-class communities of color.”

CPBA is proud to be featured alongside organizers and public banking advocates from across the country committed to reimagining finance for racial and economic justice. As Trinity Tran notes in the report, “A public bank must be rooted in public interest and accountability to the communities it serves. We’re building the financial architecture to fund affordable housing, small businesses, and green infrastructure in communities that Wall Street has long ignored.”

The report features insights from CPBA along with Public Bank LA’s Legislative Director David Jette, showing how California is laying the groundwork for a network of socially and environmentally responsible public banks, designed to build economic power in low-income communities of color.

Read the full report: Public Banks for Racial Equity.

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LA’s Next Urban Revolution: A Public Bank

The California Public Banking Alliance’s Executive Director Trinity Tran led the passage of the first law in the U.S. to let cities and regions form public banks, backed by our California alliance of activists. We did this not by playing by Wall Street’s rules but by organizing across the state to build people power. Trinity then helped lead lead the passing of a second public banking bill now on its way to becoming to first universal banking services program in the U.S. Now we’re building the next phase: public banks that move billions into affordable housing, climate infrastructure, and community resilience.

Read LA’s LA’s Next Urban Revolution: A Public Bank in The Urban Activist: https://theurbanactivist.com/economy/public-bank-los-angeles-urban-revolution/

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Making American Banking Risky Again

CPBA’s Rick Girling writes in his latest op-ed: public banking advocates stand with the CFPB and against efforts to gut the few safeguards working people have left. Wall Street and billionaire tech moguls are coming for financial protections, but we’re not backing down. Read Rick’s piece in Stansbury Forum:

https://stansburyforum.com/2025/05/03/making-american-banking-risky-again

“Since 2012, consumers have been credited or saved more than $23 billion due to CFPB actions. The CFPB won a suit against Wells Fargo for $3.7 billion for decades of mismanagement of auto loans, mortgages, and deposit accounts harming more than 16 million Americans gaining them justice after suffering fraud. The CFPB recovered $363 million from lenders who scammed service members and veterans by violating the Military Lending Act. The CFPB instituted a rule limiting overdraft fees to $5 instead of the customary $20-35 that banks charge customers who have the least in their accounts, a projected savings of $5 billion to consumers. Unfortunately, Congressional Republicans killed this rule in April allowing banks to go back to charging whatever they want.

Organizations working to democratize finance such as the California Public Banking Alliance, the San Francisco Public Bank Coalition and Americans for Financial Reform strongly support the work of the CFPB. They are also strongly opposed to billionaire tech moguls and bankers’ attempts to defang these effective regulators and consumer advocates.” 
– Rick Girling, The Stansbury Forum

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bustingthebankers

California Public Banking Alliance Featured in “Busting the Bankers’ Club” Book! 

Our work is featured by world renowned progressive economist Gerald Epstein in his book Busting the Bankers Club: Finance for the Rest of Us! California has been a hub for the public banking movement, inspiring efforts nationwide. From the foreclosure crisis to the fight against Wall Street’s role in the Dakota Access Pipeline, our roots run deep in people power.

With the passage of our California Public Banking Act bill (AB 857), California became the first state to authorize municipal public banks, turning the vision of keeping public dollars local into law. AB 1177 followed, paving the way for CalAccount and universal fee-free banking access.

The book captures our work:

On Page 259, Epstein’s book captures our fight: “California has been a center of the public banking effort in the United States, and its recent successes have inspired public banking activists in other states. These efforts evolved first from the foreclosure crisis following the Great Financial Crisis in 2007-2009, and then received new energy from the grassroots movement advocating for divestment against the Wall Street banks supporting the Dakota Access Pipeline Project. The idea of divestment brought up an important question: where could local governments keep their funds instead? The lack of alternatives to Wall Street banks gave rise to the Public Bank LA initiative, which began a campaign to establish a municipal bank that would be owned by the city of Los Angeles and would manage city funds in the public interest.”

Page 260 “…this momentum was translated into the formation of the California Public Banking Alliance, a coalition of ten public banking grassroots groups across the state. In 2019, this coalition won a great victory: the state of California passed the first municipal banking legislation in the country, AB 857, authorizing the state to charter ten municipal banks over seven years. This victory set in motion actions by public banking organizations in multiple California municipalities and several regions to attempt to establish municipal and regional public banksâ€Ķ

“This legislation was followed by a second victory, the passage of the Public Banking Option Act (AB 1177), which, according to the California Public Banking Alliance, is ‘landmark legislation guaranteeing universal free banking access to all Californians’. AB 1177 sets into motion the creation of the CalAccount program guaranteeing all California residents access to basic banking services without fees or penalties. The California Public Banking Option Act addresses the inequities in financial services acutely felt by communities that have been hardest hit by the pandemic and recession, inequalities such as discrimination, predatory lending, and vicious spirals of debt.

“The passage of these two pieces of legislation has inspired public bank groups in other states. An important lesson from California is that a broad coalition with intensive organization and persistent activity is necessary to pass and implement such legislation over the opposition of the Banker’ Club going up against the inertia of the ideological prejudices and risk aversion characteristics of many key officers in legislatures and state and local bureaucracies.”

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San Diego County Supervisor Terra Lawson-Remer Calls for a Public Bank to Finance Affordable Housing

San Diego County Board of Supervisors acting Chair Terra Lawson-Remer called for bold local action in Wednesday evening’s State of the County Address, including the creation of a public bank to finance affordable housing. She stated the need for the County to step up when the federal government falls short in serving residents: “We can wait, or we can lead.”

Read the article in Patch: “County Leader Calls For Establishing Public Bank To Pay For Housing.” 

Additional press in CBS! San Diego County Board of Supervisors acting Chair Terra Lawson-Remer called on it to take a stronger role in providing for residents, including possibly establishing a public bank to pay for affordable housing, in Wednesday evening’s State of the County Address.

CBS: “State of the County addresses San Diego Supervisor’s plan to tackle national governance crisis.”

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