The Bank of North Dakota holds public deposits and issues commercial loans, functioning as a conventional lender while also intervening to rescue distressed coal facilities. Top state officials, including current senators and former governors, champion the public model despite their conservative credentials. Although around a dozen other states once maintained similar institutions, none survived past the nineteenth century. Today, national progressives view the enduring entity as a viable blueprint to address modern local economic challenges.
Key points
Deep-red Republican officials strongly support the century-old, publicly owned lending in…: Deep-red Republican officials strongly support the century-old, publicly owned lending institution.
Bank leadership warns that while the model is powerful, improper use could make the conce…: Bank leadership warns that while the model is powerful, improper use could make the concept dangerous.
Progressive and democratic socialist lawmakers outside the state increasingly view this c…: Progressive and democratic socialist lawmakers outside the state increasingly view this conservative-backed system as a model for public banking.
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BISMARCK, N.D. — In 1918, an offshoot of the progressive farmer-labor movement known as the Nonpartisan League swept into power in North Dakota, riding a populist groundswell of anger directed at big banks and industry barons in Minneapolis and Chicago.
The group was organized by former Socialist Party member Arthur C. Townley, a failed flax farmer who barnstormed the state in a borrowed Ford Model T calling for public ownership of key industries, including banks, mills and factories. By 1919, the state legislature authorized a state-owned and -operated bank.
Over a century later, the Bank of North Dakota still stands, and the state is reaping the benefits.
The Bank of North Dakota is the nation's only surviving state-owned and -operated bank. It has persisted as Great Plains politics has shifted from prairie progressivism to deep-red conservatism, and it now manages about $11 billion in assets while enjoying broad support from the state's current political leaders.
"I think it's weird, right? We're one of the most conservative states in the union, and we have this state-run bank that was started by…
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