Move Your Money

Local business organizations around the country are starting to realize the potential of banking locally. The same stores that encourage people to buy local are taking their own advice and keeping their money in hometown financial institutions. Joe Grafton, Executive Director of Somerville Local First, a coalition of independent businesses in Somerville, Mass., explains how companies in his town started to bank locally:

…Somerville Local First has turned our attention to the financial sector. Locally owned banks and community based credit unions have been shown to provide a significantly higher level of responsiveness, service and, most importantly, lending to our community. While the largest 20 banks control 57% of the total deposits in the United States, they do only 28% of the small business lending. Compare that with small- and medium-sized banks, who control only 25% of the deposits but dispense 54% of the dollars loaned to small businesses.

Based on all of this, we’ve decided to launch a Move Your Money campaign, asking all sectors of our community to move their money out of the banks that are too big to succeed, and put it into the financial institutions that are truly rooted in our community.

[...]Individuals and organizations in Somerville, Boston, and beyond, are recognizing the added value that local businesses deliver to our communities, and are choosing to buy local first. Our Move Your Money campaign is centered on changing behavior, raising awareness, and continuing to plant the seeds of change. And, as we’ve witnessed through our work thus far in the community, we predict that people will begin to proselytize their friends and neighbors, and the movement to support local financial institutions will to spread virally. As campaigns like this one take off and their success becomes apparent, more and more communities will take up the buy local banner. In fact, just this week in New England’s 2nd largest city, Worcester Local First announced their Move Your Money Campaign.

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We love hearing how local groups are taking the lead to encourage their town to bank locally. Interested in starting a campaign near you? Check out our Ning page to meet others and find resources to get others involved at the New Rules Project’s Community Banking Initiative website.