Public banking isn’t a fringe idea anymore. It’s on the evening news. On Tuesday, the Los Angeles City Council voted 11-3 to identify $460,000 fund a feasibility study on a city-owned public bank. The Council first approved this study in 2023, but the money got swept back into reserves when the budget got tight. Now it’s back on track, thanks to years of organizing by Public Bank LA and community members who kept showing up at public comment, in council offices, and in the press.
The study will map out what a municipal bank could look like for Angelenos: its mission, governance, capitalization, and path to regulatory approval.
The big question from critics is whether the city can run a bank. LA already runs LAX, the Port of LA, and LADWP, all multibillion-dollar enterprises run by independent commissions and professional staff. A public bank would work the same way. It wouldn’t be a retail bank with branches or checking accounts. It’d be the city’s bank, lending through local credit unions, community banks, and CDFIs to finance affordable housing, small businesses, and clean energy, and keeping LA’s public dollars working for LA instead of Wall Street.
Local TV took notice. NBC4 sat down with CPBA and Public Bank LA Executive Director Trinity Tran to ask whether Angelenos would sign up for a city-owned bank, and FOX 11 covered the vote with Eli Lipmen of Move LA, a member of the PBLA coalition.
- NBC4: Would you sign up for LA’s city-owned public bank?
- FOX 11: LA City Council votes to identify $460,000 for public bank study
Thank you to Councilmember Ysabel Jurado for making the case on the council floor, and to Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez for her longtime leadership on public banking.
