The Official Newspaper for Foster County
The Official Newspaper for Foster County
While on our way to Rapid City for Thanksgiving, we stopped at Hardees in Dickinson for a bite to eat before hitting those long stretches of highway in western South Dakota.
It had been more than a year since we took the route that took us through Dickinson and south on N.D. Highway 22 to Reeder and beyond.
But Hardees wasn’t the suprise that day in Dickinson, it was a bank across the street. Bank of the West had been operating in that location for some time. Little did we know that Bank of the West, headquartered in San Francisco, changed hands in February 2023 and the Dickinson location was changed in September of last year.
The marquee at the bank says BMO, which is Bank of Montreal, one of five chartered banks, and one of the oldest banks in Canada.
All Bank of the West locations are now called BMO and the Dickinson branch is operating just like any other bank in North Dakota. It is affiliated with Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., and is bound by other banking regulations.
After further checking, the bank in Dickinson is the only BMO bank in North Dakota, but it was quite a surprise to see how many BMO ATMs are located in the state. There are 26 of them in Dickinson, Bismarck, Alexander, Anamoose, Beach, Beulah, Carrington, Dickinson, Dunseith, Fargo, Grand Forks, Tioga, New Town, Mandan, Hatton, Stanley, New Rockford, Lignite, Harvey, West Fargo, Pembina, Minot, Lidgerwood, Watford City, Northwood, Medina and Jamestown.
OK, if BMO is doing business in North Dakota, are there any other Canadian chartered banks doing business here?
It turns out that of the five chartered banks, only one other, the Royal Bank of Canada, also known as RBC, has a branch bank in south Fargo. It is one of 439 branches throughout the U.S.
There are three additional chartered banks that aren’t presently located in North Dakota, but have a presence across the United States. They include Toronto Dominion Bank, known in the United States as TD Ameritrade, Scotiabank, or the Bank of Nova Scotia, and finally the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, commonly known as CIBC.
Toronto Dominion has 173 branches in the U.S. If you’re a basketball fan and watch the Boston Celtics at TD Place in Boston, that arena is named for the Toronto Dominion Bank.
It’s unclear how many Scotiabank locations are located in the U.S., but we do know that it operates branches in New York, California, Texas and Puerto Rico.
Likewise with CIBC. It has branches in California, Florida, Illinois, Michigan, Missouri and Wisconsin.
So why are Canadian banks doing business in North Dakota?
Regarding BMO, the Dickinson branch was part of the Bank of the West acquisition.
RBC in the United States is affiliated with the Charles Schwab investment firm and the Fargo branch is known as RBC Wealth Management.
In the grand scheme of things, there are two reasons why the Canadian chartered banks have locations in North Dakota. According to Canadian banking publications, the No. 1 reason is because there is money to be made in North Dakota.
The No. 2 reason is to make it easier for Canadian snowbirds who may be traveling through North Dakota, or who may be staying in the state for an extended period of time. That’s why you’ll see hundreds of these banks in Florida, Georgia, Texas and California.
It’s hard to say if the other chartered banks will open up shop here, but it’s pretty clear that in 14 months, BMO has established itself and appears to be doing well.
