A Public Bank  is a financial institution owned by a government entity—such as a state, municipality, or nation—that operates in the public interest rather than for private profit. The Philadelphia Public Banking Coalition is a group of non-partisan volunteer citizens on a campaign of public education and civic action to achieve the creation of a public bank in Philadelphia. 

Project Beloved Community

Philadelphia Public Banking Coalition has joined with Just Nation and other local partners to create Project Beloved Community, a ten-year plan to transform Philadelphia’s economy through democratic ownership of housing, business, financial institutions, to reclaim and grow our collective wealth. Learn more about Project Beloved Community.

Project Beloved Community Summary

Project Beloved Community Teach-In Slides

Bring Our Money Home!

Our partners at Philly Neighborhood Networks have launched a petition drive to insist that the Philadelphia Pension Board invests here at home. Join us in signing the petition to let them know how important this is to each of us and out city as a whole. Spread the word to your friends and family, too. Click here to sign.

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As we were waiting for the new Administration to take office in January, we developed a flexible, multipronged strategy for the period ahead. Our three-part initiative includes Bring Our Money Home collaboration with POWER Interfaith, Locally Targeted Pension Investments, and Move City Money. To learn more and get involved, check out all the details in the Bring Our Money Home section.

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What could a Public Bank do for the City of Philadelphia?

• Add resources to the City budget without increasing taxes by returning profit to the City rather than allowing outside corporations to pocket it.
• Reduce the cost of public projects like repairing libraries and schools because, unlike Wall Street Banks, it would not charge high interest rates to the City. This would reduce the cost of these projects by an estimated 50%, allowing the city to do more with our money. And the interest paid could come back to the City as a dividend.
• Build opportunities to create small businesses by extending low-interest loans and credit to community banks that provide most small business loans and have been starved of funding since the recession.

Public Banking has deep roots in Philadelphia

The first public bank was introduced in America by the Quakers in the original colony of Pennsylvania. In 2012 the first National Public Banking conference in modern times was held here. Philadelphia can take the lead again by establishing its own Philadelphia Public Bank.

The Bank of North Dakota provides a model that we can follow

The North Dakota public banking model is simple. By law, all the state’s financial assets and revenues are deposited in the Bank. In turn the bank pays its dividend to its only shareholder—the people of North Dakota. In the past decade, despite its small population and modest volume of economic activity, the Bank of North Dakota has returned over $300 million to the state’s general fund, helping to ensure regular annual budget surpluses and eliminating the need for drastic tax increases or spending cuts for vital public services.

The Bank of North Dakota partners with private banks to provide a secondary market for mortgages, and supports local governments by buying municipal bonds at low interest rates. The bank also helps individual North Dakotans, for example by refinancing the federal student loans of North Dakota residents, allowing many of those students to pay off their loans and escape unfair and excessive debt.