Farmers Line Up
The day the bank opened, there were more almost 200 farm loan applications on the directors’ desk. In 1919, the farm economy was beginning to suffer and many farmers in the State were paying usurious rates on overdue mortgages with The Twin Cities-St. Paul banks and insurance companies. The Bank of North Dakota mission was to provide rural credit at cost. But that money had to come from somewhere.
In its first five months of operation, the bank received more than $8 million dollars worth of loan applications that were supposed to be funded by the sale of $10 million in bank series bonds. But the bonds weren't selling. The economy was beginning a downward spiral that would end in the country's worst agriculture depression. Federal Reserve had begun to tighten credit and investors were hard to find for any risky investment. Although North Dakotans responded to the League's appeal to buy bank series bonds, out-of-state investors were leery of the “risky” the bank venture. Public confidence was needed to promote the bonds to Wall Street investors.
Photographs from the collection of Bank of North Dakota