The city of Detroit is seeking bids for banking services for its $1 billion in deposits that will favor financial institutions with headquarters or investments in the city.

The request for proposals, issued Thursday, is designed to consolidate city government's nearly 175 bank accounts with one or possibly multiple banks for a long-term banking services contract, said John Hill, the city's chief financial officer.

"What we're really trying to do is to get these deposits to work for us by attracting jobs into the city and banks that will want to headquarter here," Hill told Crain's. "We see this more like a problem-solving procurement."

In evaluating the RFPs, the city will award additional points to banks that have demonstrated a financial commitment to economic development and job creation in Detroit over the past five years, Hill said.

Banks that are either based in Detroit or commit to locating a regional or national headquarters in the city will also be awarded additional points toward winning the city's banking business, according to the RFP released Thursday.

"We would be putting our deposits to work, not just getting good interest rates, but we'd also be creating jobs," Hill said.

Hill said when he became the city's CFO in late 2013, Detroit had as many as 600 different bank accounts holding deposits for tax revenue, fees for service, grants and state aid for city departments and other entities that fall under its control.

"We've already brought down the number of accounts," Hill said. "But we think it's still too many."

Detroit is allowing banks to bid on routine banking services for the nearly 500,000 payments the city processes annually or to just be the custodian of investments.

Three years after emerging from bankruptcy, Detroit is operating with a $500 million fund balance, Hill said.

Responses to the RFP are due March 28.

Hill said Detroit could decide to award its entire book of banking business to one or multiple banks, depending on the responses to the RFP.

"The way that it's structured we have the ability to select one bank or many banks," he said.