Local finance and banking alternatives can help communities and local economies, but their impacts will not be big enough to fundamentally remake the global financial system. For that, policy changes that extend beyond the local level will be needed.
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- The International Movement for Monetary Reform is one place to learn about the policy changes needed to transform the global financial system – in particular, taking money creation out of the hands of private banks and vesting it in governments.
- In the United States, the Public Banking Institute has been pushing for public banks at the state level. Encourage your state to create a public bank with the tips, sample letters, and more in their Advocacy Kit.
- The Pathways to a Peoples’ Economy Toolkit contains a number of policies and case studies on limiting the size and power of banks and creating financial institutions that prioritize the communities they serve. The toolkit is US-based but many of the steps can be applied elsewhere.
- Learn how US cities and states can fight back against the power of big banks in the Banking chapter of Fighting Monopoly Power, by the Institute for Local Self-Reliance. It offers some “potent levers that states can pull to curb the power of megabanks and strengthen and expand community banks and credit unions.” (Scroll down to the section, “How States and Cities Can Fight Back.”)
Get inspired
- The Transnational Institute’s book Public Finance for the Future We Want describes how public finance is shaping regenerative and redistributive economies around the world, from India to Germany, Costa Rica to Vietnam. Available as a free download in English, Spanish, Italian, and Greek.