The North Korean banking system has changed a great deal since the 1970s, with commercial banks, trade banks and foreign payment banks being formed to facilitate a range of transactions, and offer financial services of new types.

In addition, under Kim Jong Un, the range of actors permitted to engage in some form of financial activity has also widened. NK Pro analysis indicates:

The socialist mono-bank system that existed until the mid-1970s meant that all financial transactions were mediated through the central bank. There was no system of loans, with all enterprise working capital and