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Push On For Municipalities To Move Investments To Local Banks

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) – It's a call for local governments to move a billion dollars from national and international banks into local banks for loans to local businesses.

A group called Region Finance is sending out formal letters to local municipalities on Friday.

The business group points to a lack of access to capital as the number one economic development issue. It identifies Selland's Market as one of Sacramento's business success stories.

The restaurant's Broadway location is the company's third. Open six months, it has fifty new employees.

Scott Maxwell owns and remodeled the Broadway building Sellands moved into.

"Sellands has reached out to all the residents around here, and that's where their whole pool of employees have come from," Maxwell said.

Maxwell remodeled the building with loans from a local bank.

"The community is essentially our main source of income so we wanted to stay with the local banks," Maxwell said.

Now local banks could be getting a lot more money to lend.

A snapshot of Sacramento County's investment portfolio shows deposits in international banks like Montreal Bank, Royal Bank of Canada, Swedbank, and Rabobank of The Netherlands.

Region Finance is calling on Sacramento County and 30 other municipalities to move some of those investments into local banks like Five Star, River City, American River and Community Business Bank.

The proposal is for a billion dollars in transferred funds.

"When we're talking about a billion dollars being put in these banks, the vast majority of that money can go back into this community, creating jobs here, and expanding economic growth here," Region Finance CEO Josh Wood said.

Five Star Bank CEO James Beckwith says the investment program would have to prove their loans are making a difference.

"And say hey, this is what we've done with your money and here's how we think it's benefited your community," Beckwith said.

For Sacramento area businesses ready to expand, now a proposal that could boost lending by a billion bucks.

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