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Bank of North Dakota

The Bank of North Dakota (BND) is a state-owned, state-run financial institution based in Bismarck, North Dakota. It is the only government-owned general-service bank in the United States.[2][a] It is the legal depository for all state funds in North Dakota, and uses these deposits to fund development, agriculture, and small businesses.

Originally proposed as a credit union-style institution to free the farmers of the state from predatory lenders in Minneapolis and Chicago,[10] The business-backed Independent Voters Association then pursued political processes to force the bank's closure. The BND's support of small commercial banks was important in their ability to provide relief during the pandemic, leading to North Dakota having the highest density of approved paycheck loans in the United States. As a result, BND has been described as creating an "alternative, decentralized, and regionally based circuit of capital for North Dakota [...] retying banking and the financial sector to the local economy and small business development".

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