{"id":48344,"date":"2026-05-20T14:09:34","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T21:09:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=48344"},"modified":"2026-05-20T14:09:35","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T21:09:35","slug":"san-francisco-moves-ahead-with-plan-for-public-bank","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2026\/05\/20\/san-francisco-moves-ahead-with-plan-for-public-bank\/","title":{"rendered":"San Francisco moves ahead with plan for public bank"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By\u00a0Alyce McFadden<\/a>, Staff Writer May 19, 2026 (SFChronicle.com)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gift Article<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Supervisor Chyanne Chen will introduce a charter amendment at the Board of Supervisors meeting that would establish a municipal financial corporation, a precursor institution to a public bank.\u00a0Manuel Orbegozo\/For the S.F. Chronicle<\/em><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

San Francisco is taking a step toward opening a public bank, with time running out to move the plan forward. Supervisor Chyanne Chen will introduce a charter amendment at the Board of Supervisors meeting that would establish a municipal financial corporation, a precursor institution to a public bank. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Proponents of the measure say a public bank would help San Francisco fund programs that align with its highest priorities, like building more affordable housing, supporting small businesses and meeting its climate goals. But such an institution could be the first in any contemporary American city, and some experts say it is unclear whether a public bank would succeed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSan Franciscans need and deserve bold solutions to address our most pressing challenges,\u201d Chen said in a statement. \u201cWe must use every tool we can to keep San Francisco affordable and to advance solutions that lead towards a just economic recovery for all.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The proposal will need to win the approval of a majority of the Board of Supervisors to appear on voters\u2019 ballots in November. Four supervisors \u2014 Jackie Fielder, Bilal Mahmood, Myrna Melgar and Shamann Walton \u2014 have already signed onto the measure as co-sponsors. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If it passes in November, it would codify the framework for how the institution would operate, drawing on a plan published in 2023 by a group convened to study how a public bank could work in San Francisco. The charter amendment would not provide a revenue stream to fund the bank but it would enshrine its rules, structure and mission in the city\u2019s charter. To pass, it would require a simple majority of voters to approve it.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The bank would be run by a board of qualified bankers appointed by an oversight committee whose members would be selected by the supervisors, the treasurer, the city attorney, the controller and the mayor. The layered appointment structure is designed to help insulate the bank against corruption or political influence, according to the 2023 report. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some San Francisco progressives have been pushing the city to create a public bank for years. In 2023, supervisors unanimously approved the plan outlined by The San Francisco Reinvestment Working Group, a body created by supervisors in 2021. The group\u2019s final report forms the basis of Chen\u2019s charter amendment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fielder, a progressive who represents the Mission and who has been on a leave of absence since March, founded the San Francisco Public Bank Coalition in 2017. The group helped push state lawmakers to pass a 2019 law giving cities and counties in California a path to creating their own public banks, but the law expires in 2028, giving San Francisco a short window to move on the plan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt feels like an incredible tool to add to the city\u2019s tool kit,\u201d said Misha Steier, a spokesperson for the coalition. \u201cThis is the culmination of years and years of movement effort.\u201d  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In February<\/strong>, Fielder proposed a separate ballot measure<\/a> that would fund a public bank through a tax increase on lending companies including mortgage brokers and credit card companies, according to Mission Local. Daniel Anderson, a spokesperson for the Our City Our Bank campaign that had been gathering signatures for that measure, said the campaign\u2019s efforts will now focus instead on passing the charter amendment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chen\u2019s proposal would not designate a funding stream to direct money into the bank\u2019s coffers, but bank leadership and San Francisco voters could separately decide how best to fund the institution later on, according to Steier. Raising money for the bank could prove challenging. San Francisco\u2019s business community has organized to oppose a tax on big businesses that will come before voters as a ballot measure in June, arguing that new taxes could push employers out of San Francisco at a critical moment in the city\u2019s economic recovery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Several other jurisdictions in the state, including Los Angeles and Berkeley, have also explored public bank measures, but none have yet moved ahead.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A public bank in San Francisco would be among the first of its kind in the United States. As a point of reference for how it might work, public banking advocates frequently point to North Dakota, which has had an effective public bank since the early twentieth century. It boasts significant profit margins and has administered disaster relief programs in the wake of flooding<\/a> and agricultural crises<\/a>.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Robert Chirinko, a professor of finance at the University of Illinois Chicago who has researched the effectiveness of public banking, says he sees little evidence that the model would necessarily work as well in San Francisco. According to his research, much of the North Dakota bank\u2019s success stems from the state\u2019s fracking boom and the fact that its funds are uninsured. Unlike a traditional bank, where deposits are insured by the federal government, North Dakota\u2019s bank has no such protection. That saves the bank money but also means the state takes on a significant amount of risk. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

More broadly, Chirinko said local legislative bodies \u2014 like San Francisco\u2019s Board of Supervisors \u2014 are best equipped to decide which public programs to fund in the name of social good. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cInfrastructure, education, pollution, extending credit to low-income communities, et cetera: I have nothing against doing those things, but you should do it through the legislature,\u201d he said. \u201cYou shouldn\u2019t do this through this, basically, runaround.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Steier said San Francisco\u2019s proposal includes several layers of protection to reduce risk for money that is kept in the bank.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some examples of the types of projects the public bank could help finance include multi-family housing, electrification projects and small business expansions, according to Chen\u2019s office. A public bank has several advantages over bonds, according to Steier, including the fact that \u201cwe\u2019d be keeping the interest, the loans would be cheaper.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A municipal finance corporation \u201cand Public Bank can help jumpstart the more than 10,000 affordable housing units in our pipeline that are stalled due to lack of financing, and incubate and grow our treasured local small businesses to help provide economic security for local entrepreneurs and their families,\u201d said Chen in the statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

May 19, 2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

Alyce McFadden<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

City Hall reporter<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alyce McFadden is a City Hall reporter at the San Francisco Chronicle covering the Board of Supervisors. McFadden previously worked at the New York Times, where she was a news assistant and reporting fellow. She covered Andrew Cuomo\u2019s history of sexual harassment<\/a>, the trial <\/a>of the man accused of attacking Salman Rushdie, the Los Angeles wildfires<\/a> and the reaction to the killing<\/a> of Charlie Kirk. McFadden has also written for Law360, OpenSecrets and the Maine Beacon. She\u2019s a graduate of Bowdoin College, where she studied government and legal studies and was editor in chief of the student paper.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By\u00a0Alyce McFadden, Staff Writer May 19, 2026 (SFChronicle.com) Gift Article Supervisor Chyanne Chen will introduce a charter amendment at the Board of Supervisors meeting that would establish a municipal financial corporation, a precursor institution to a public bank.\u00a0Manuel Orbegozo\/For the S.F. Chronicle San Francisco is taking a step toward opening… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1862,1912],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48344"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48344"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48344\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48346,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48344\/revisions\/48346"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48344"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}