Banking Institutions of the Isle
Financial Institutions
Bank of the Scarlet Throne
Official bank of the Scarlet Empire, which once handled the issue of loans as part of Realm fiscal policy. Now highly conservative, charging excessive interest for even low-risk loans. Run by the Imperial Treasury. Deals only in jade.
Scarlet Bank of the Empress
Personal bank of the Empress. Where the Throne Bank deals only in jade and controls the Imperial coffers, the Scarlet Bank deals in jade scrip and controls the personal fortune of the Empress. The bank's administrators are currently in turmoil, uncertain wether to actively continue their work, thus staving off collapse of the Isle's peasant economy, or keep the coffers full so that a new Empress does not punish them for emptying her fortune.
Great House Banks
Each of the Dynastic Houses maintains an informal set of banking practices for House members, which will often loan out money to causes which advance House interests.
- House Ragara: House Ragara has the most organized of the House banks, and the only one focussed upon loans outside the House. Ragara loans come at competitive interest rates, but repayment is strictly enforced, and Ragara bankers frequently arrange loans they know will not be repaid monetarily, so they can translate the debt into favours and services of greater value to the House.
Prefectural Credit Houses
Each prefecture has a Credit House, which provides loans that will aid in local development. The money for these loans is itself borrowed at low interest from the Scarlet Bank, and in recent years the flow of funds has slowed to a trickle.
Guild Bank
The Guild issues loans to inhabitants of the Realm, but its limited status there means that any loan requires substantial collateral be available before it is approved. Loans from the Guild are frowned upon by most Dynasts.
Arjuf Stock Exchange
Older than the Scarlet Empire, housed in a manse whose chambers are a constant reminder of the once great financial web which bound Creation under the Shogunate. It allows mercantile concerns to raise capital by selling off 'shares', which come with both a measure of control and a payment of dividends.
Interest Rates
Interest charged on loans is tied to the salt rate, plus several percentage points depending on the specifics of the loan. As the salt rate varies across Creation, so too does loan interest, which has lead to riches and bankruptcy amongst bankers and loansharks seeking to borrow at low rates and re-lend at high ones.
Bonds
Bonds are a common financial instrument amongst the Realm's upper classes, debt packaged into a tradeable security. A large institution such as a Great House or prefecture finds itself in need of capital but does not want to take out loans from outside. Instead, it uses bonds to 'conscript' capital from within: in the example of a Great House, the stipends of members would be stripped and bonds issued instead, for a prefecture tax collectors would collect additional taxes and hand over bonds in exchange. Each bond guarantees the taken capital will be repaid after a fixed period, and annual interest will also be paid on the loan, typically at 'half-rate', 2%. Each bond is certified with an official stamp from the Imperial Treasury, and can be bought and sold quite easily after its issue.
Being able to conscript loans at low interest was vital for many construction and economic development projects, while being able to sell debts so accumulated meant the poorer Dynasts and peasants stuck with bonds could get rid of them to recover vital cash for living expenses. However, with Creation becoming more chaotic in the Empress' absence, the market for bonds has slumped, with few buyers willing to invest in loans uncertain to be repaid.
Bonds issued in the Realm come in either Short-Term Bonds (called 'bills') which reach maturity in 5 years, or Long-Term bonds ('true bonds') which reach maturity in 50 years.
Insurance
On the Blessed Isle, insurance can be purchased on just about anything… objects, shipments, manses, warehouses and contents, provided the money and the trust can be found. A contract is negotiated, determining the term and exactly what the insurance will cover, and the buyer pays a percentage of the assessed value. Should one of the listed damages occur, reimbursment is issued.
Partial Coverage: (Salt Rate + 6% assessed value). Reimbursement of 50% assessed value if lost to basic natural disaster.
Complete Coverage: (Salt Rate + 10% assessed value). Reimbursement of 100% assessed value if lost to basic natural disaster.
Special Coverage: Increases the cost of an insurance contract, to insure against specific ‘special risks’ (supernatural, or abnormal natural, disasters). Each gongfang (insurance actuary) has a table of such risks, and if a danger is listed on that risk table then the basic coverage contracts do NOT cover it. Risk tables are worth small fortunes in of themselves, if one can acquire one: a basic table from a veteran independent gongfang sells for at least R3.
Notable insurance institutions on the Isle:
Scarlet Bank of the Empress: The Bank which controls the personal wealth of the Empress, and once served as an arm of her fiscal policy. In better years, they were the most powerful insurance agency in the Realm. Now, they are hesitant to take risks, their insurance charges have almost doubled from regular market prices.
Society of the Precise and Punctilious Gongfangs: Finest insurance company on the Blessed Isle. Has been compiling tables of risks for the past seven centuries. Risk Table value = R5.
Energetic and Illustrious Association of Risk-Buyers: Finest insurance company in the Eastern Threshold, controlled by the Guild. Their use of a standardized risk table slows transactions down by up to a week, but allows them to undercut competitor’s rates by one or two percentage points. Risk table value = R4.
