News & Events

Vice — The failure of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank, both known for making risky investments and concentrating on banking speculative sectors, is invigorating the nationwide movement to get cities and states to put their deposits in public banks, which are designed to reinvest in communities and which do not have to reap profits for shareholders.

In response to the banking crisis sending shockwaves through the economy, a statewide coalition delivered a letter to NYS Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins and NYS Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie urging passage of the New York Public Banking Act to “give local governments a sorely-needed ‘public option’ for holding public deposits.” The bill would create a safe and appropriate regulatory framework for public banks – financial institutions created by local governments and chartered to serve the public interest.

Vice — Over the past week, bank runs have caused multiple U.S. institutions serving the technology and crypto industries to collapse. Two banks, Silicon Valley bank (SVB) and Signature Bank, have been placed into receivership with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), which will put all deposits into bridge banks run by the FDIC until they can be sold in an effort to quell panic about the stability of the banking system.

Noema — Gregory Jost noticed the first two bank branches close in the Bronx about six months before the pandemic. They were right next to each other: a Chase and a Bank of America, about three blocks from his son’s school in Norwood, and one day, he walked by and saw they were gone.