The San Francisco Public Bank Coalition educates people about the potential of public banking to finance affordable housing, green energy, student loans, small businesses, and sustainable agriculture in the San Francisco Bay Area, through community-based information sessions, media, and one-on-one consultations.

Your contribution can go towards helping us create literature and host workshops that demystify the complexity of municipal finance and introduce the concept of public banking. Our principles are as follows:


PUBLIC OWNERSHIP
San Francisco taxpayer money is currently entrusted to private banks that engage in socially and environmentally destructive practices fundamentally contrarian to the values of San Franciscans. The profit derived from their loans benefits private shareholders who are not accountable to our City. Only public entities should be able to own shares in a San Francisco municipal public bank.

COMMUNITY WEALTH BUILDING
A public bank should seek in its lending programs to promote a economy that upholds social justice and ecological sustainability. In its lending priorities, it shall promote community ownership and community wealth building, including investments in permanently affordable housing, locally-owned social enterprises, cooperatives, and community-based nonprofit organizations.

LOCAL CONTROL
A public bank should operate on principles of local control for the benefit of the communities that own it.

PUBLIC WELFARE
A public bank should invest for the purposes of enhancing the welfare of the people of San Francisco rather than the private wealth of a class of shareholders.

INDIGENOUS RIGHTS
A public bank shall act within a reparations framework to honor that we are on Ohlone land, to protect sacred sites and support land trusts, and uphold indigenous people’s right to Free, Prior, and Informed Consent.

PROHIBITIONS
The public bank should refrain from investing in sectors that exacerbate negative environmental conditions and socio-economic disparities, including fossil fuels, tobacco, military and weapons, prisons and detention centers.

UNDERSERVED COMMUNITIES
A public bank should directly or indirectly provide credit and financial services to local communities underserved by mainstream commercial banks and lenders as well as public finance programs, to undo the historical legacy of wealth disparities and harmful economic, environmental, social, housing and transportation impacts.

COOPERATION WITH EXISTING COMMUNITY BANK INSTITUTIONS
A public bank shall strengthen the lending capacity of existing credit unions and local  banks by partnering, rather than competing, with them on participation lending and other programs.

ACCOUNTABILITY & TRANSPARENCY
The public bank shall adopt mechanisms for ensuring community oversight, accountability, and transparency.