The original aim of our Community Reinvestment Banking paper back in May was to kick-start a debate about the potential to improve society and try and ensure some good came out of the banking crisis and the recession. Although we set out some ambitious ideas of what might be possible through reform of the banking system, we weren't trying to put forward specific proposals. We knew then (and know even better now!) that we didn't have all the answers, were not experts in the field of banking regulation and felt it was important to have a discussion about what sort of proposals might deliver the sorts of change we wanted to see.

Since then, we've had lots of discussions and received a great deal of feedback. As you'll know if you've been a regular subscriber to this blog, we've been talking to politicians, bankers, community groups, civil servants and people from the world of community finance...among others. As we've done so, it has become clearer both what might be possible (or likely) and what the best means of achieving our aims are. We've also become aware of how big the potential for change is, how great the challenge of making it happen and how small the window of opportunity we have might be.

What's also clear and very encouraging is that there is a huge amount of support within the third sector for campaigning to deliver public benefit through reform of the banking system. A recent meeting, convened by the Community Development Finance Association (CDFA) brought together around 30 organisations with an interest in building a community reinvestment campaign coalition. Among those attending were: new economics foundation, Debt on our Doorstep, ACEVO, bassac, Social Enterprise Coalition and the National Housing Federation. There was general enthusiasm for a campaign and discussions are now focussing on taking this forward.

As a result of the knowledge and feedback gained from experts, partners and people concerned about the fallout from the financial crisis, we have now published our detailed proposals for banking reform. Our proposals set out four things that will fundamentally change the way banks operate to ensure we do not repeat the mistakes of the recent past and offer solutions to some of the intractable problems of poverty and inequality:

• Support for communities
• Responsible credit
• Disclosure of information
• Investment

We've received an overwhelmingly positive response from people concerned by the lack of change offered by politicians of all Parties.

We now have just three weeks to respond to the Treasury's banking reform White Paper to demonstrate the depth of public feeling that exists. If we do not act now, we will miss the opportunity to ensure our banking system delivers genuine public benefit.