District Bank of SpaceInvasion

The District Bank of SpaceInvasion is the bank of all colonies. It lends money to District Lords who want to build and takes money from those who currently have too much. All cities share the same market.

"Money is never scarce. Only expensive." (the banker)

Founding

When the Colonial Authority took over settlement in 2204, it lacked one thing above all: money. Every new world swallowed power plants, roads and wages long before the first tax came in. The great trading houses of Ceres saw their chance.

The merchant Hadria Monvellier convinced the Ceres houses to pool their capital and founded the bank of the great colonisation programme on March 9, 2212. Among the settlers that programme was only ever called SpaceInvasion, because humanity was literally overrunning the stars. The bank kept the name.

From the Colonial Authority it received the Charter of Phobos: only the District Bank may lend to District Lords, and its instalments are collected first thing every day, before shifts and wages. Nothing about that has changed to this day.

Crises and rules

• The Vesta bank panic (2287): too many colonies wanted money at once, and the bank came close to collapse. Since then the interest rate follows utilisation. When a lot is deposited, loans are cheap, and when money gets scarce, the rate climbs steeply.
• The Pack Wars (2351 to 2363): the bank froze every account of the Free Pack. In breakaway colonies its name is still a curse today.
• Colonial reserve and world market: so that panic never returns, the Colonial Authority and the other colonies of the Azimuth Zone keep putting money into the market. That is why there is always credit, even when few District Lords are depositing.

The banker

Every colony has a branch of the bank. On AZ884 that is Livia Desmond-Varo. She smiles a lot, calculates faster than any compute core in the colony and has never forgotten an instalment in her whole career. Least of all yours.

Taking out a loan

• Term: 4, 8 or 12 weeks
• Interest: the rate on the day you borrow stays fixed for the whole term
• Repayment: a fixed daily installment, debited first thing every day, before shifts and wages
• Fee: 1% of the amount
• Limit: at most 5,000,000 $ per account, across all your cities. All daily installments together may be at most 50% of your daily taxes.

If money is missing on the day of an installment, arrears build up. They block new loans, but never the game.

The interest rate

The loan rate depends on the bank's utilization, meaning how much is lent out compared to what has been deposited. It ranges between 2% and 15% per week. When plenty is deposited, loans are cheap. When little is there, they get expensive, and above a high utilization the rate climbs steeply.

Besides the players, the colonial reserve and the world market of the other colonies also provide money. So there is always a market, even when only a few District Lords are depositing.

Depositing money

If you have money to spare, deposit it, up to 100,000,000 $ per account. You earn up to 1% per week. The deposit rate follows the loan rate and the utilization. As long as fewer than 25 players deposit, the reserve guarantees at least 0.5%. Interest accrues daily. You can withdraw at any time.