BILL NUMBER: S5643

SPONSOR: PARKER
 
TITLE OF BILL:

An act to amend the banking law, in relation to establishing the office
of financial resilience

 
PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF THE BILL:

Create a new Section 46, under Article 2 of the Banking Law, to direct
the Department of Financial Services to establish a "Chief Financial
Resilience Officer" and "Chief Cooperative Economist", who will create
and develop new programs at the Department of Financial Services that
help communities build resilient local economies based on cooperative
and peer-to-peer economic models.

 
SUMMARY OF SPECIFIC PROVISIONS:

Section 1: will set forth the creation of the "Chief Financial Resili-
ence Officer" and "Chief Cooperative Economist" roles at the Department
              

of Financial Services.

Section 2: of the bill will outline the Chief Financial Resilience Offi-
cer and Chief Cooperative Economist's roles and responsibilities,
including overseeing programs and initiatives that: foster financial
resilience among local communities; assist local economies with struc-
turing blockchainbacked solutions to support small businesses; help
local merchants and citizens setup community currencies designed to
incentivize people to shop locally.

Section 2-b: states that this office will conduct workshops, offer
assistance and guidance, and advocate on behalf of constituents with
regulators.

Section 3: of the bill states that this act shall take effect immediate-
ly

 
JUSTIFICATION:

As the financial capital of the world, New York must take the lead in
creating a more resilient financial system that supports local economic
growth. As the nation's first government office dedicated to this
mission, the Office of Financial Resilience will be a full time team,
led by the Chief Financial Resilience Officer and Chief Cooperative
Economist, focuses on implementing blockchain-backed technologies
designed to build cooperative and peer-to-peer local economies.

Every day, based on a debt-driven growth model, our financial system
sustains an outdated paradigm of uncontrolled competition and profit at
all costs, fueling a society that widens the gap between the wealthy and
the poor.

Consequently, more Americans are living pay check to pay check than ever
before while countless companies profit from a national fiat currency
system, one that has even begun to monetize things such as college
education, natural catastrophes, and our criminal justice system.


For example, our current interest and loan-based competitive financial
models have led to a student-debt crisis of over one trillions dollars
in cumulative debt, turning our young people into "wage slaves":
https://www.cnbc.com/id/44958852. Instead of aiding all of these
students and new workers, Congress has passed legislation to expand
banks' abilities to collect debt from them.

As it cripples the aspirations and dreams of future generations with a
lifetime of debt, our current economic paradigm has enriched and
empowered multinational corporations that extract resources from local
communities at an unprecedented rate. Prime examples such as Facebook,
Amazon, Uber, and big chain stores mine revenue, data, and personal
information from people and their neighborhoods every day while giving
back little in return. The Office of Financial Resilience will be tasked
with reversing this trend and advancing a bottom-up economic system that
adds intrinsic value to local neighborhoods.

 
PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:

2019-20: S.5060 - Referred to Banks
2017-18: S.9156 - REFERRED TO RULES

 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:

To be determined.

 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect immediately.