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Banking can be expensive, especially for low-wage workers. A score of California lawmakers have signed on to a new bill AB 1177 designed to offer Golden State households free financial services, taking on the state’s powerful banks at a time when easier access to banking services could help families cope with the economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Read the LA Times article by Margot Roosevelt: https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2021-04-06/bankcal-california-banking-bill-offer-free-services-covid-19

David Jette takes a deep dive in conversation with Rohan Dixit on the historic #AB857 legislation we passed last year with the California Public Banking Alliance. Among the topics discussed: Capitalization: what sources of capital can be used to capitalize the Bank? Collateralization: what mechanisms can we use to collateralize public deposits? (A letter of credit from the FHLB / Federal Home Loan Bank, for instance.) Governance: What are the governance models possible with the language of AB 857? For example, is there any explicit relationship between the city / cities depositing funds and the Bank governance? Regulatory Organizations: who are the major regulatory groups involved? e.g. FDIC, DFPI / Department of Financial Protection and Innovation, to what degree is the Federal Reserve involved or not involved).

Congresswomen Rashida Tlaib (MI-13) and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY-14) introduced the historic Public Banking Act, which allows for the creation of state and locally administered public banks by establishing the Public Bank Grant program administered by the Secretary of the Treasury and the Federal Reserve Board which would provide grants for the formation, chartering and capitalization of public banks.

David Jette of Public Bank LA and CPBA states in the press release, "“We cannot face the crises of our day with the financial infrastructure that led us to those same crises. We need accountable, publicly chartered banks that invest in the well being of the many, not the few. This bill gets us there, and not a moment too soon.”

Read Congresswomen Tlaib's press release on the Public Banking Act: https://tlaib.house.gov/tlaib-aoc-public-banking-act