Press Room & Media
In the News
Downturns may be the best time to start a bank with a mission to serve underserved or disinvested communities
By Oscar Perry Abello, Next City – Cities and states are considering ways to use public dollars to create state-owned or city-owned banks as part of recovering from the COVID-19 recession. With its mission and its seed money from the state, Virginia Community Capital opened for deposits on August 20, 2008 — smack dab in the middle of the Great Recession.
PNM merger could help the company make significant strides in transition to renewable energy
By Collin Krabbe, Albuquerque Business First – A proposed merger between Albuquerque-based electric utility PNM Resources, one of New Mexico’s largest companies, and Conneticut-based Avangrid Inc. sent shockwaves through the energy community. The deal — worth $4.3 billion — is expected to lead to “substantial” job increases for PNM and a quicker adoption of renewables, officials said following the announcement on Wednesday.
New Mexico hospitals face massive revenue losses, many primary care services struggling
By Tommy Lopez, KOB-TV – Hospitals in the state have lost more than half a billion dollars in revenue—$519 million. Federal and grant funding has given a $367 million boost to state groups, but that doesn’t offset the losses, leaving a collective net deficit of $152 million. Plus, state health leaders say health groups can’t always use 100% of what they receive from the federal government because of the stipulations attached.
Industrial Commission Approves New Bank of North Dakota COVID Relief Program
By Bank of North Dakota – The Industrial Commission approved a $50 million interest buydown program to be administered by Bank of North Dakota (BND) for businesses with decreased revenue related to the COVID-19 pandemic. The program, COVID PACE Recovery II, (CPR II), will be funded by CARES Act dollars assigned to Bank of North Dakota, the only state-owned public bank in the United States.
Public banks offer advantages to customers
By Frank Sanitate, Santa Barbara News-Press – Both community wealth and private wealth are important. But private wealth has a significant advantage which communities are not taking advantage of now. Community wealth needs to imitate private wealth in taking this advantage. What follows is why and how communities can do this.
Postal service crisis — California is ready to pilot a postal banking solution
By Thomas M. Hanna and Jeff Olson, The Hill – Earlier this year Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand and Bernie Sanders introduced the Postal Banking Act, which would restore financial and banking services to post offices throughout the country for the first time since the 1960s. “Postal banking will help us bring the same equality of service the USPS has for mail delivery to the financial system,” Gillibrand and Sanders contend.
Philadelphia Examining Whether Public Deposits Can Close Racial Disparities in Small Business
By Oscar Perry Abello, Next City – Derek Green believes the disparity in access to credit for small businesses between wealthier, whiter areas of the city like Society Hill versus poorer, Blacker areas of the city like North Philadelphia is one of the reasons why Philadelphia has remained the poorest big city in the country. The COVID-19 pandemic has made it both more urgent and more difficult for public bank supporters to keep pushing forward in Philadelphia.
Bank of Philadelphia? Study says a public bank could help small biz survive COVID
By Darryl C. Murphy, The Philadelphia Tribune – An independent report commissioned by the City of Philadelphia recommended the creation of a public bank that would allow city government to loan directly to small businesses. The feasibility study done by consulting firm HR&A Advisors looked at how a city-controlled financial authority could help Philadelphia tackle entrenched poverty and open up financial opportunities to businesses historically locked out.
What the unbanked need from the 2020 election
By McKenna Moore, Fortune – Experts say the most effective way a President could increase financial inclusion, though, is to simply make it a priority. Whether 2021 brings President Donald Trump’s second term or former Vice President Joe Biden’s first, the victor needs to acknowledge that there’s a problem and set policy goals to address it, says John Thompson, chief program officer at the Financial Health Network.
The Fed Is A ‘Development Bank’ – Make It Our Development Bank Again
By Robert Hockett, Forbes – Here’s something you might not have known. The Fed is a national development bank – our national development bank. Its mandate originally was and remains that of a facilitator of local business and productive community bank lending across the entire nation, not a bottomless liquidity hole for Wall Street high rollers.
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Episode: Everyone deserves a public bank
“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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