Municipal Banking: An Overview

This report lays out a broad framework for how municipalities can establish, fund, and operate publicly owned municipal banks based on principles of egalitarian, redistributive justice, worker rights, and more ecologically sound urban development. While this paper focuses on the potential for cities to create publicly owned banks, many of the core principles involved also apply to state-level initiatives. Issues related to capitalization, ownership structure, transparency, and governance are addressed. The paper also outlines a variety of lending initiatives through which municipal banks can advance and realize a broad set of redistributive and environmental objectives.