NYC does billions of dollars of business with banks every year. Those banks make money from their business with NYC, which is funded by NYC’s taxpayers. But do they serve all of NYC’s diverse communities fairly?
In 2012 New York City passed a law called The Responsible Banking Act (RBA) to help make sure banks are meeting the needs of local communities. The RBA gives NYC a way to evaluate bank activities and gives community members a chance to speak up about their community’s needs, how banks are responding, and how banks can improve.
For this issue of Making Policy Public, CUP collaborated with the advocacy organization ANHD and designers Andrew Shea and Christina Beard of MANY to create Don’t Bank On It. This fold-out poster shows how the Responsible Banking Act works, the importance of community participation to making the law effective, and the dramatic impacts banks can have in shaping communities.
ANHD is distributing Don’t Bank On It to City Council members, other advocacy organizations, community members, and to the Community Investment Advisory Board itself – the board responsible for making sure the RBA works. Don’t Bank On It was officially launched at the first public hearing of the RBA, at Brooklyn Borough Hall on February 8, 2015.
Get your copy of the poster here.