In Fresno, a coalition of local and statewide poverty-fighting groups is pushing the city to explore creating a public bank — a financial institution owned by the government (not private shareholders) whose mission is to serve the community. Fresno lags behind in small business lending (having ranked 97th out of 100 in a national study) and argues that a public bank could help correct that gap by keeping public tax dollars local rather than shipping profits to Wall Street.
