The Vision Realized
Programs such as PACE and Ag PACE involve the Bank as a partner with a local lender or local economic development fund to provide low-cost financing to businesses and agricultural ventures. In some programs, the Bank of North Dakota reduces the local lender's risk by guaranteeing a loan. With other programs, the Bank buys down the interest rate for the borrower. New programs such as the Beginning Entrepreneur Loan Program make Bank funds more accessible to small businesses.
In other ways, The Bank continues to provide low-cost services to assist local financial institutions such as the BND Fed Fund and Letter of Credit programs. Its investment in technology has developed ACH–Automated Clearing House software that allows lending institutions to provide their customers with electronic bill paying and check processing services. The Bank has also fully automated the student loan process and allows borrowers to access up to the minute information about their students’ loans on the web.
The Bank's newly expanded agricultural lending programs now provide specialized services to both Beginning and Established Farmers, and are authorized to make loans for both real estate and chattel.
The Non-Partisan League's vision of sweeping system of state-owned and operated enterprises never fully came to fruition but did leave the state with a legacy of unique enterprises: the State Mill and Elevator in Grand Forks, and the Bank of North Dakota which 86 years after its founding is still serving its mission to encourage and promote agriculture, commerce and industry for the betterment of the people of North Dakota.