Sacramento, CA – Members of the community coalition supporting the CalAccount program applauded Governor Newsom’s focus on ensuring all Californians have equitable access to financial services in the May Revision Budget proposal presented on May 13th for fiscal year 2022-23. The May Revision budget allocates $4 million to complete the market analysis, the first step […]

People’s World – For too long a handful of corporate banks have controlled the financial destiny of the overwhelming majority of Americans. Throughout American history, a commercial oligarchy was responsible for feeding corporate greed and when markets collapsed from too much debt and not enough resources to adequately fund it, countless millions of workers and […]

Public banking is on a roll! People across the nation are turning out to learn more about public banking — and Californians are at the forefront of making public banks a reality for the first time in generations. Public banking activists, politicians and financial experts are busy producing viability studies and business plans so that […]

Dollars and Sense features Rick Girling’s article in the September/October issue. Read his follow-up piece  “Corporate Bankers Wary of Public Banking” on Page 8 of the November/December Issue. Ever-growing inequality has helped consolidate and concentrate corporate control over the U.S. economy. The financial sector is a prime example. This issue’s third feature article, by public banking […]

Next City – October 12, 2021. Out of eight million unbanked households across the country, one million are in California alone. The state is now looking to address this by taking a page out of the former USPS savings account playbook. Assembly Bill 1177, passed in September and signed by Governor Gavin Newsom last week, […]

ABC7 News – October 8, 2021. Los Angeles might be the first major metropolitan city to create a public bank. A public bank would be owned and operated by the city. Los Angeles City Council voted unanimously to take the first steps in seeing the viability of a public bank. According to city councilmembers, it […]

The Sacramento Bee – October 4, 2021. California set a course to offer the nation’s first zero-cost, public option platform for personal financial services, under a new law signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom. Assembly Bill 1177, authored by Assemblyman Miguel Santiago, D-Los Angeles, calls for the state to conduct a market analysis of a state-backed […]

September 10, 2021 – Rick Girling, Steve Sittig, Trinity Tran, California Public Banking Alliance. Today the California State Legislature approved 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 […]

Jacobin – August 2, 2021. By Julian LaRosa. The basic functions of investment are too important to be left in the hands of private banks only interested in accruing profits. We need public banks — something the Public Banking Act, introduced by Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Rashida Tlaib, would provide. While only a few dozen […]