Bank of Orussus

[B4cchus]

Most adventurers around here drag along thier well earned riches. This can be done in several ways: exchange your gold in gems, buying exoensive equipment, or just haul along a bulking sack of coins.
For both safety and encumberance reasons i think there should a better way of solving this: deposit you money at the bank.
Such a bank could be either a player initiative or an institution.
Since i prefer the latter, i wrote up this proposal as such. If anybody wants to start such a service through one of his characters this could be done alongside an institutional bank (its a free market after all).

The bank of Orussus.
The bank of Orusus is run by the local banking guild. It sits in a heavy building without windows. Lihjt and air only enters the building through small slits. The building is well guarded by both magic and steel. All attempts to rob the place have resulted in failure so far.

Whenever a person wants to deposit his money he has to open an account.
This costs 80 gp for administrational services (a bank serves the rich. They don't want every kid with a few coppers as a customer).
When a person has openend an account he can make a deposit of withdrawal from his account. Making a trasaction costs 5gp for administrational services.
In exchange for his money, one recieves a letter of credit. This is a special document (magically imbued) which verifies the fact that this person has an amount of money present in the vault of the bank.
Being such a foolproof and magically imbued item, such a letter is not cheap to make. Luckily it doen's have to be created everytime a deposit or withdrawal is made.
Signing up a letter of credit costs 75 gp (included in the fee to open an account).
If a letter of credit should be lost or destroyed, one can appeal to the 'identity commision'. This commision verifies someone's identity as a cetain person who holds a certain account.
Using the servics of this commision costs a hefty 100gp and must be paid upfront. If someone wishes to continue his account, a new letter of credit must also be signed (costing another 75gp).
This proces magically destroys the old letter, wherever it is.

Currently the bank issues no interest on money kept. Money gained through investments is used to pay for the building and security of it.

In game usage of the bank can be done with only udge approval (like the purchase of equipment).
The money in the bank should be noted on one's character sheet. Maybe there is need for a special thread, stating all accounts and the amount of money on these accounts.

I look forward to your comments!

Greetings,
B4cchus

 

[Someone]

It has too much of a modern feel, IMHO. What about this instead:

In ENWorld banks evolved relatively recently from petty moneylending to major businesses with the rise in commerce. They are privately owned, and deal with money exchange and lending. Though they are becoming powerful institutions, their number is still small and thus they have no regulating guild. (this allows PCs to start banking businesses using the normal profession rules) Trust and reputation are the major assets of a bank, and newcomers have to work hard to make themselves a place in the business.

Normally banks work closely with temples, where money is actually stored, since clerics have actually the magic to defend against thievery and the sacred nature of them also deters robbery. Delanor´s temples are the most commonly used for that, since he has temples in most of the major ports, where commerce and banks thrive.

Banks offer the following basic types of services:

- Credit; a loan the bank offers an individual or institution in exchange for interest. It´s usually quite high (25% at least) since LEW is a dangerous world; the form and time of payment can vary depending on the customer.It´s a rare thing that a loan is granted to an unknow or unreliable individual such as an adventurer, and the interest in that case would be really high.

- Money movement; gold is heavy and can be impure, and jewels are difficult to appraise properly. Important banks can issue letter of credit to be paid on distant locations by other banks or branches of the same bank; that eases the transport of "money" from one place to another. Letters of credit aren´t currency, but are increasingly being used as such (being just stored and traded instead of being converted to money) however, they are only used for large amounts of money and are normally checked and verified throughly before paid.

Letters of credit can come in an increasingly large aomount of varieties about how, when and to whom are they paid.

An adventurer could use this service, "transfering" money previously stored at the temple to another location, though the bank usually won´t bother for amounts lesser than 1000 gold coins. The normal commision for that is 1% of the value of the letter of credit.

 

[Bront]

Actualy, I like the feel of the bank, and agree with the fees (Which would preclude most pre 4th level characters from using it in general). No interest is right, most banks simply held the money, garunteed it, and gave out bank notes that were sometimes used as legal currency as they could be signed over.

However, Some of Someone's points seem like good ideas as well. I'll do some research and see what I come up with a bit later, but this is an interesting idea.

 

[Velmont]

I got a question, with this more official mean to deposit money, could there be other mean to do it.

The one I have in mind is the shop. Rinaldo have left money at his shop. It has the double advanatge of being used as a bank (if I get rob in monemvassia, i know I have a few gold waiting for me in Orussus), but also it is a mean for the shop to run, as it need money.

I wouldn,t see a problem myself. The shop need money, but I also paid 500 gp to have the shop, it has to come with a few advantage. This one among other few.

 

[BigB]

I got a question, with this more official mean to deposit money, could there be other mean to do it.

The one I have in mind is the shop. Rinaldo have left money at his shop. It has the double advanatge of being used as a bank (if I get rob in monemvassia, i know I have a few gold waiting for me in Orussus), but also it is a mean for the shop to run, as it need money.

I wouldn,t see a problem myself. The shop need money, but I also paid 500 gp to have the shop, it has to come with a few advantage. This one among other few.

Velmont, I would think that if a bank system as suggested above was available for larger amounts of money, your shop could find a market niche for smaller amounts of money. I believe the majority of adventurers in LEW are lower level. You might not pay interest but charge for a safe place for money storage.

 

[B4cchus]

When i wrote up this proposal i kept 'playability' and 'fit for pbp' in mind more than historical accuracy. The modern feel may be enhanced due to these factors, as well with the addition of magic.

I didn't include loans because i think they don't fit in LEW...

Money movement is a good addition. I didn't thought of this because i focused on Orussus as the main stage for adventures. Banks could be placed in other cities which accept the letters of credit as well.

The merger with temples could work well, i don't see any impact on the 'rules technical' workings (except that maybe priests of opposite alignment can't or won't use the service). It surely adds some more flavour.

As a reply to Velmont: as i stated in the proposal, this service can exist alongside such services by characters/shops. I very much like a neutral/offical institute to do banking. There will be room enough for other initiatives in the money lending/keeping business.

Any more comments and/or ideas?

 

[Someone]

When i wrote up this proposal i kept 'playability' and 'fit for pbp' in mind more than historical accuracy. The modern feel may be enhanced due to these factors, as well with the addition of magic.

I didn´t care for historical accuracy, though some things are inspired in history. The "modern" feel I talked about was more in line with the regulated bank owned by the guild. Orussus may be relatively big, but does it have enough market for that?

I didn't include loans because i think they don't fit in LEW...

It´s more of a flavor thing: no banker would loan money to a murdeous, anarquist tomb robber (I mean adventurer) but it´s a shame to have all that gold sitting around doing nothing, isn´t it?

Money movement is a good addition. I didn't thought of this because i focused on Orussus as the main stage for adventures. Banks could be placed in other cities which accept the letters of credit as well.

The merger with temples could work well, i don't see any impact on the 'rules technical' workings (except that maybe priests of opposite alignment can't or won't use the service). It surely adds some more flavour.

Again, it was a matter of flavour, I have nothing to comment on the crunchy bits, only aditions to make to the fluff. Fluff is important when making adventures.

 

[Patlin]

I think I responded in a similar vein in the general thread, but two of my characters have made some use of banks previously, under two different DMs. I think it's allready cannon that banks exists. I know I'm not the only one to have used them, too, and letters of credit have shown up in various places..

I suggest that banks not pay interest, but not charge depositers either. Why discourage deposits? Perhaps banks will only pay out to the depositor personally, and see the short lifespan of an adventurer as a possible windfall waiting to happen... unrealistic, but fits in well wih prohibitions on transfering wealth in the campaign world.

 

[Someone]

I suggest that banks not pay interest, but not charge depositers either. Why discourage deposits? Perhaps banks will only pay out to the depositor personally, and see the short lifespan of an adventurer as a possible windfall waiting to happen... unrealistic, but fits in well wih prohibitions on transfering wealth in the campaign world.

There´s no in-game reason to charge deposits, if only because aplayer could very well write in his sheet "5000 gps buried under a tree 3 mile south of Orussus" and for all matters have the money as safe as it could be. Banks and financing would make a good fluff proposal, however: adventurers meet regularly rich people.

 

[LiquidBlue]

I hope I am not breaching ettiquite by raising a thread that has dropped from view.

This is how I would suggest that a banking system work.

Certain temples are willing to protect the money of their followers, or for the public. It is a simple matter for these temples to issue "bank notes" for the deposited money. Temples dedicated to the same deity would accept and redeem notes. Depending on the deities involved a temple might accept a note from another deity's temple.

The integrity of these notes could be secured by a new spell "Divine Mark" an analogue of the "Arcane Mark" spell. I imagine that such a spell could uniquely identify the cleric who crafted the note, the temple where the note was crafted, and cleric's patron deity.

Such a system would be largely fluff, but would allow commerce to be carried out using notes instead of coin struck from precious metals.

**Actually such a system is almost essential for any type of extended commerce.