MEDIA RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 3/17/2023

Contact: Andy Morrison, andy@neweconomynyc.org

​

COMMUNITY AND LABOR GROUPS RAISE ALARM OVER LATEST FINANCIAL CRISIS, URGE LAWMAKERS TO ADOPT PUBLIC BANKING

 

NEW YORK, NY – In response to the banking crisis sending shockwaves through the economy, a statewide coalition delivered a letter to NYS Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins and NYS Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie urging passage of the New York Public Banking Act to “give local governments a sorely-needed ‘public option’ for holding public deposits.” The bill would create a safe and appropriate regulatory framework for public banks – financial institutions created by local governments and chartered to serve the public interest.

In the letter, the coalition, which includes “dozens of community and labor groups representing hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers,” underscored the need for public banking to address “inequities in our financial system and economy while helping to promote stability in New York’s banking sector.”

The letter follows reports that hundreds of millions of dollars in public deposits belonging to New York local governments are held at failed Signature Bank. Public banks would more responsibly serve the needs of local governments, the coalition stressed, since they “do not seek to maximize profits and therefore eschew the kind of rampant risk-taking that reportedly contributed to the collapse of Signature Bank and Silicon Valley Bank.”

​

The New York Public Banking Act has broad support in the state legislature, including co-sponsorship from a majority of the NYS Senate. Read the full letter.

​

​