North Dakota is the only state that has established a publicly owned bank: the Bank of North Dakota. This article looks at the benefits that a public bank has brought to the state. Thanks in large part to BND, community banks are much more numerous and robust in North Dakota than in other states. North Dakota has more banks and credit unions per capita than any other state. In fact, it has nearly six times as many local financial institutions per person as the country overall. While locally owned small and mid-sized banks and credit unions (those under $10 billion in assets) account for only 29 percent of deposits nationally, in North Dakota they have a remarkable 83 percent of the market.

Author: Stacy Mitchell