[Public Sparkassen] Savings banks are located all over Germany, accessible to people needing their financial services. "The Sparkassen are most notable for the public welfare mandate they have, whereby stakeholder value is the key objective not shareholder value. The Sparkassen have the lion's share of the market for SME [Small & Medium Enterprises] financing in Germany at 70% with an overall 42% market share of business financing generally. As of 2014, the 423 Sparkassen had 15,300 branch offices with 245,000 staff and a business volume of €1,106 billion."

The Bank of North Dakota, the only State Public Bank in these United States, has a long history of adding great benefit to the residents of North Dakota, providing rapid financial support in times of natural catastrophes, loans to small businesses in cooperation with local financial institutions, while returning a profit to the state government. It has outperformed Wall Street banks in the last 10 years, has never had a bank failure or bailout, and is always ready to assist the constituents of the state with financial support. As President of BND for 20+ years, Eric Hardmeyer has indicated that the bank, to paraphrase, ‘looks for opportunities to help the State of North Dakota, especially in a crisis’. Hear more about how the BND greatly assists the State economy from President Hardmeyer, here: https://youtu.be/gvc_hROqNv4?t=1621