Author Talk: The Banks We Deserve

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Join us for a conversation with journalist Oscar Perry Abello about his debut book, The Banks We Deserve: Reclaiming Community Banking for a Just Economy. The book draws on Abello's near-decade of reporting on economic justice for Next City, an independent, nonprofit, digital newsroom covering solutions for social, racial and environmental justice in cities.

We've never done anything big in this country without little banks, despite what big banks or big tech might want us to believe. Locally-owned, locally-controlled financial institutions have and continue to make key investments in communities that big banks were never designed to make. But not every community has had the same opportunity to create their own local financial institutions. If we want to do big things like close racial disparities in wealth and income, build all the housing we need at prices people can actually afford, or transition to a clean energy future, we can't afford to sit around and wait for big banks to do it for us on their schedule.

Let's start a conversation about how we can build and support local financial institutions to get it done on our schedules.

ABOUT THE BOOK

You can purchase the book here.

The number of community banks in the US has been steadily declining for decades, giving way to big banks that have little connection to the communities they claim to serve. The massive, unprecedented shift toward such a highly concentrated banking sector has weakened our ability to take action at a community level and leaves many people, especially those who have been historically marginalized, without access to capital.

In The Banks We Deserve, journalist Oscar Perry Abello argues that community banking has a crucial role to play in addressing urgent social challenges, from creating a more racially just economy to preparing for a changing climate. At their best, community banks unleash the agency and aspirations of the communities that establish them. Abello challenges people working on racial justice, community development, or addressing climate change to start more community banks or credit unions as part of their work, while also calling for policies and regulatory reforms that will help tilt the landscape back in favor of community banking.

The Banks We Deserve tells the stories of new community banks — like Adelphi Bank, in Columbus, Ohio, the first new Black bank in 20 years; or Walden Mutual Bank in Concord, New Hampshire, the first new mutual bank since 1973 and the first chartered specifically to finance a more sustainable food system; or Climate First Bank, in St. Petersburg, Florida, which has grown exponentially since opening for business in 2021. He hopes these stories inspire others to take some of these same daunting-but-not-impossible steps. For a community or industry that is being ignored by big banks, the idea of starting up a new bank or credit union rarely figures as an option. In The Banks We Deserve, Abello shows advocates, organizers, and innovators that it can be done, that it is being done, and describes a path to support more community banks and credit unions.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Oscar Perry Abello is a journalist covering alternative economic models and policies in cities across the country. He is currently senior economic justice correspondent for Next City, an independent, not-for-profit, online publication covering cities from the lens of social, racial and environmental justice. His writing has also appeared in Yes! Magazine, City & State New York, Impact Alpha, Shelterforce, and other outlets.

Oscar is a child of immigrants descended from the former colonial subjects of the Spanish and U.S. imperial regimes in the Philippines. He was born in New York City, and raised in the inner-ring suburbs of Philadelphia. He has a bachelor's degree from Villanova University, where he majored in economics and minored in peace and justice studies. He spent several years embedded in the international development industry before transitioning into journalism full-time in 2015. He currently lives in Washington Heights with his domestic partner and the two most photogenic kitties in the world.

AGENDA

6:00PM Welcome to MATTER

6:30PM Author Introduction

7:15PM

7:00PM Author / Moderator Introduction

7:15PM Reading

7:30PM Conversation

8:00PM End

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