March 10, 2022 | by Shawn Donnan, Ann Choi, Hannah Levitt and Christopher Cannon
When Mauise Ricard III paid a $560.43 application fee to Wells Fargo & Co. on Valentine’s Day in 2020 to refinance his mortgage on a four-bedroom brick colonial in a leafy suburb of Atlanta, he had every reason to expect an easy ride. The Microsoft Corp. engineer is married to a doctor and has a credit score north of 800, putting him in America’s credit elite. The loan officer at the bank even told him he was probably eligible for a fast-track appraisal.
Philadelphia City Council OKs creation of nation’s first municipal bank
Philadelphia Business Journal, by Ryan Sharrow, Editor in Chief, March 3, 2022 (photo by Laura Smythe / Philadelphia Business Journal) City Council voted on Thursday to create the Philadelphia Public Financial Authority, a move that positions the city to launch the...
Philadelphia Bill Would Establish First Ever Municipal Public Bank Entity
NEXT CITY, by Oscar Perry Abello February 17, 2022 The stated mission of the proposed Philadelphia Public Financial Authority is to support Black-owned businesses and other businesses in neighborhoods that have historically lacked access to credit. (photo:...
Public Banks: What Are They, and How Might They Impact Workers?
ONLABOR, By Travis Lavenski January 12, 2022 (Above: First State Bank, Osnabrock North Dakota) Since the Great Recession in 2008, a surge of discourse regarding public banking has emerged. Commonly pushed as a core piece of progressive legislation, states...
Murphy vows to follow through with plans on New Jersey public bank
The Washington Examiner, By T.A. DeFeo | The Center Square January 5, 2022 New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy said he intends to follow through with plans to open a state-owned bank. In November 2019, Murphy signed Executive Order No. 91 to create the Public Bank...
Bank of Washington? States consider opening government banks
The Seattle Times, By Elaine S. Povich | stateline.org December 19, 2021 Unlike commercial banks, the mission of public banks would be to invest in public priorities such as affordable housing, small business loans or infrastructure projects. Most could offer...Upcoming Events
Wells Fargo Rejected Half Its Black Applicants in Mortgage Refinancing Boom
SEED NM 2022 Symposium: Bob Mang on how business guilds can regenerate communities
SEED NM 2022 Symposium: Bob Mang on how business guilds can regenerate communities
Bob Mang, Re-Genesis Inc, Co-Founder (Retired) and AFLEP Board member, talks about rural economic development and how business guilds can regenerate communities.
Episode: Everyone deserves a public bank
Join those who’ve endorsed a Public Bank for New Mexico
“I had the good fortune to work on this initiative before Bernie kidnapped all my time. This is one of those no-brainer initiatives that only the 1% could oppose. It has the potential to save the state millions of dollars by vastly reducing the cost of its bonds to improve infrastructure funding. in a public bank, our state funds can be used to build our local economy and our local infrastructure.”
– Paul Gibson
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