Banking in Illuminatia
Personal and commercial banking in Illuminatia is accomplished oftentimes but not necessarily through the intermediation of brick-and-mortar banking institutions. All banking transactions in Illuminatia are facilitated via the Monetary Network, which is operated by the Office of the Monetary Network (OMN). Transactions take place in units of the only currency utilized in Illuminatia, the Monetary Unit (μ).
Banks, countinghouses, depositories, financeries, and lendinghouses are prominent players in local commerce in the cities in which they have a presence and are known to use their wealth to engage in their own enterprise and community-building initiatives. Financial institutions such as banks are usually for-profit commercial corporations in Illuminatia. All financial institutions in Illuminatia are regulated by the Department of Monetary Policy (DMP).
Banks are commonly owners and operators of broadcast stations. Financial institutions have been known to establish commercial enterprises, engaging the initial investment risk, and later sell the stable business to an interested operator. Banks will often also fund the establishment of non-profit organizations, though the bank will never directly own the organization, as organizations in order to be considered non-profit organizations in Illuminatia must be owned only by a non-invested board of directors. A bank, when it is owed money by a corporation that would otherwise go into bankruptcy due to its negative Monetary Network balance, will generally by default acquire ownership of the company and take over operations or delegate operations under the bank's discretion.
It is not necessary for an individual to engage with a bank in order to take part in the exchange of liquid wealth with other individuals or corporations through the Monetary Network. Banks are not necessary to serve as intermediaries for Monetary Network transactions. Individuals may be issued personal transaction devices with which they may conduct transactions directly on the Monetary Network with an account that is directly hosted by the Office of the Central Bank (OCB).
All banking and financial account holding in Illuminatia is subject to the DMP's negative interest rate monetary policy. Thanks to the intermediation of banks, personal holders of small sums of liquid monetary funds are largely unaffected by this negative interest rate; this is a benefit of engaging a bank for one's Monetary Network account instead of interfacing directly with the OCB. Due to the system of banks interacting with Illuminatia's Central Bank, larger sums of money will be subject to the effects of the negative interest rate especially when the money is sedentary. Individual financial institutions are free to set their own interest rates for their account holders dynamically from customer to customer and do so independent of the OCB in whatever way may suit their interests. Banks almost uniformally elect to attach a zero interest rate to accounts holding the smallest sums of liquid assets and will adjust the interest rate down from zero progressively as accounts get larger.
The largest and most prominent banks in Illuminatia include institutions such as Grand Opolis Bank, Rickistonian Financial, and Rhapsody Asset and Loan.