A public bank can help advance economic policies that promote sustainability and justice. Help build a Massachusetts movement for public banking by sharing information with legislators, municipal officials, business and economic development groups, and other potential stakeholders.

Our fact sheet explains why Massachusetts needs a public bank, summarizes our bill, and explains why the bank is a prudent financial investment. It’s a great document to share with legislators and possible endorsing organizations.

Our longer FAQ tackles more detailed questions about risk and cost-savings, the relationship between the public bank, private lenders, and quasi-publics, the advantages of establishing a state bank as opposed to a loan fund, and how current legislation differs from previous bills.

The 2021-22 legislative session was groundbreaking for public banking in Massachusetts. 

• We substantially rewrote our legislation to create a public bank focused on the Commonwealth’s need for sustainable and affordable small business, climate, family/small farm and municipal financing. 
• We brought in experts from community development, finance and banking law. With their input we ensured that our bill creates a bank that is fiscally sound and responds to community need and input.
• We ensured that our legislation help address long-term financing gaps for BIPOC and women-owned businesses, and for economically disadvantaged neighborhoods.
• We built a dynamic coalition of thirty supporting organizations from the community economic development, municipal, agriculture, and environmental/climate sectors.
• We assembled a team of experts to testify in favor of the bill at its initial hearing before the Joint Committee on Financial Services, and to continue to advocate for the bill after the hearing.
• Our bills gained a record 24 legislative co-sponsors.

You can read the bill here. Now we are updating this legislation for the 2023-24 session, incorporating feedback from Massachusetts financial and banking authorities and others. 

We welcome your help in establishing a Massachusetts public bank! Contact us to see how you can support this effort.

While this session’s work is over, we are gratified by the progress we made and grateful to everyone who supported this campaign.

Throughout the session, our coalition supporters affirmed the need for a public bank as a source of affordable, accessible, equitable and sustainable financing for small businesses, businesses, community development institutions, municipalities, land trusts and local agriculture. In outreach to legislators and bankers, our steering and advisory committee members emphasized that a public bank will work cooperatively, not competitively, with Massachusetts state-chartered  banks. 

• In January 2022, public bank supporters called for passage of H1223/S665 at a press conference. Speakers included Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley, our bill sponsors Sen. Jamie Eldridge, Reps. Nika Elugardo and Mike Connolly, BECMA‘s CEO and President Nicole Obi, Nia Evans of the Boston Ujima Project, and leaders from the state’s economic development, municipal, and environmental non-profits. You can watch a recording of the press conference here.
• On the same day, the Metro Mayors Assocation, representing mayors and town managers in the core metropolitan Boston area, reiterated their support for public bank legislation. You can read their support letter here.
• Also in January, 36 experts in community development, law, economics, planning, green energy and climate, small business, and democracy, submitted this letter of support. They noted the public bank’s potential for collaboration with state-chartered banks and emphasized the bank’s mandate to provide low-cost loans to benefit municipalities, women- and minority-owned businesses, and local industry.
• Our campaign received unprecedented media coverage, including this endorsement from The Boston Globe.

We thank all our endorsing organizations, our bill presenters Rep. Mike Connolly, Rep. Nika Elugardo, and Sen. Jamie Eldridge, and our advisory committee members. 

We are eager to refile our legislation and build an even broader coalition to establish a Massachusetts Public Bank.

Across the nation, more than 25 initiatives for public banks are actively being pursued, by progressives and conservatives, 30 of 50 states have proposed legislation in support of publicly-owned banks, and over 50 organizations are promoting public banks.