We’ve never done anything big in the US without little banks. Yet the number of community banks has been steadily declining for decades, giving way to big banks that have little connection to the neighborhoods 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.

Oscar Perry Abello is Next City’s Senior Economics Correspondent and the author of The Banks We Deserve: Reclaiming Community Banking for a Just Economy. He 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.