This website is dedicated to the life and work of the President of the Bank of North Dakota, who for 21 years served the state of North Dakota, Eric Hardmeyer, rising from the ranks of the BND to become its president.

The BND is the nation’s only state public bank and was established in 1919, over 100 years ago. It never suffered a bank failure and never had to be bailed out. It outperformed Wall Street banks over the last 20 years, while returning a profit to the state.

Eric Hardmeyer embodied the spirit of service to the people of North Dakota, leading the bank and the state through the troubled waters of the 2008 financial crisis, and has focused the mission of the bank to help students, small businesses, and help finance communities of the state to rebuild after natural calamities. You can see one of his last videos on the operation of the Bank here: https://youtu.be/gvc_hROqNv4?t=526

Special Notice:

It takes a team to complete any endeavor of great value. To that end a special thanks goes to Earl Staelin for his steady, intelligent leadership, keeping the vision of public banks alive in Colorado, almost singlehandedly. And a warm Ευχαριστώ to Professor Alec Tsocatos, who, as Vice Chair of RMPBI, has kept us focused and on task, offering profound insights, and moral leadership. A heap of gratitude to board members Sid and Zack for making this website possible. And none of this would be possible without another board member, Marie, whose generosity is only surpassed by her commitment and compassion.

I would be remiss if I didn’t note that I am responsible for selection of most of the content displayed in this website.

But I am deeply indebted for those creating the content: Earl Staelin, Ellen Brown, Richard Werner, Eric Hardmeyer, the Public Banking Institute, NYPB coalition, CAPB coalition, authors, writers, and researchers from around the world, and all the other state and city chapters around the country now working feverishly for the establishment of Local Public Banks.

Our work at RMPBI has only begun. Our final, achievable objective is to have a public bank for every city, county, and the state of Colorado as sole depositories of the tax wealth of their citizens, chartered to only invest that wealth in the local community, following the well-established “Regional” principle of all public banks.

faithfully yours,

Michael Melio, Secretary, RMPBI