Public Banks

Public banks are banks located within the public sphere of a state. They are pervasive, with more than 900 institutions worldwide, and powerful, with tens of trillions in assets. Public banks are neither essentially good nor bad. Rather, they are dynamic institutions, made and remade by contentious social forces. As the first single-authored book on public banks, this timely intervention examines how these institutions can confront the crisis of climate finance and catalyse a green and just transition. The author explores six case studies across the globe, demonstrating that public banks have acquired the representative structures, financial capacity, institutional knowledge, collaborative networks, and geographical reach to tackle decarbonisation, definancialisation, and democratisation. These institutions are not without contradictions, torn as they are between contending public and private interests in class-divided society. Ultimately, social forces and struggles shape how and if public banks serve the public good.

'The Great Financial Crisis of 2007-2009 and the near financial meltdown at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic have made it vividly clear that our current financial system is woefully inadequate to address the massive problems we face. Thomas Marois has written a masterful book that convincingly argues that a major expansion in the role of public banks can provide long term, well-directed finance to speak to these major challenges. This is the definitive work on public banking that will be of enormous interest to practitioners, policy makers, economists, and others who are tired of just complaining about the failures of finance and who actually want to do something about it.' Gerald Epstein, Professor and Co-Director PERI, University of Massachusetts, Amherst

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