Banks

Banks are a civil facility which provides a large number of services to players and communities that they belong to. Players can open accounts with a bank for certain benefits, as well as store items within vaults, acquire loans or even work with the right qualifications. Banks can generally be found in all locales of a town grade or higher.

Benefits to Players
Without a bank account, players must carry currency on them. If killed by an enemy player, they risk losing a portion of that currency, which is awarded to the victor. With a bank account, players can make transactions with dealers without worrying about losing money upon death to another player.

Bank Accounts
There are a number of different bank account types available to players, which may be used for different things. These accounts can be accessed and modified by visiting a Bank and talking to a Bank Teller. The most basic accounts are free to setup and have no recurring fee, while more advanced accounts may have a setup fee, or incur a periodic fee, or both.

Account types available to players include:
 * Basic Account: With this account, all money accrued by players will channel automatically into this account. It costs no money to setup or maintain, and any transactions made with Dealers or other players can come out of this account type. There is however, no interest with this account type. A player can have multiple Basic Accounts, up to a maximum of 3. A basic account is also required before other types of accounts can be created.
 * Savings Account: This account type costs $10 to set up and has no direct ongoing fee. This account has an interest rate on it that will vary from bank to bank, depending on their fiscal strength in the stock market. Interest is debited to the account once quarter-seasonly (12 days). While there is no ongoing direct fee, withdrawing money from this account more than once a quarter-season will result in a $10 (+2% total funds for accounts containing over $5,000).
 * Term Deposit Account: A more extreme version of the Savings Account, the Term Deposit allows players to deposit large sums of money and surrender access to it for an agreed period. Interest rates on this account are much higher, but the minimum duration is 1 season (48 days), increasing in intervals of 1 season, and players cannot access money for that duration.
 * Business Account: This type of account is required for players wishing to set up their own business. For a $100 setup and seasonly fees of $250, this account will serve as the storage for all of your business' cash flow. It has a standard interest rate, and players will find discounts when purchasing certain items (mostly bulk stock) with their business account.

Vault Storage
All banks also offer a free service called Vault Storage, which provides 100 slots for players to store items in. Additional slots can be purchased for a setup fee. Items stored in Vault Storage have the benefit of being accessible to players at all times through the Courier, who will charge a small fee for his service. Items can also be stored in Warehouses, but players will need to visit a warehouse each time they want to deposit or withdraw items.

The Vault Teller NPCs will assist you with managing your Vault Storage.

Credit Loans
The Loans Broker NPC in each bank may be able to provide you with cash loans, granted you meet certain criteria, included below: Your circumstances will determine the size of the loan you can acquire. If you have had a criminal record in the past, for example, it will have a negative bearing on your application. If you have had a few promotions within your job, or are on a high salary however, you will be entitled to a lot more. Upon a successful application, money will be transferred into the account that you nominate.
 * Your character must not currently have an existing unpaid loan.
 * Your character must not currently have a criminal record.
 * Your character must have at least one occupation.

Credit Loans appear as their own type of bank account in your Accounts Panel. They will incur a negative interest quarter-seasonly, based on how much credit is left. Money can be transferred from any of your accounts into the credit account, until it is paid off (you cannot withdraw from this account type). It will disappear automatically from your panel upon being fully paid off.

Interest will continue to negative incur beyond the loan's intial limit up to 25% of the original amount. Beyond this, the bank will give a warning for payments to be made within a quarter-season. If the loan is not brought below this 25% threshold within that time, they will extract money from your other accounts, if it exists, until the loan is returned to its original amount. If this money does not exist in your other accounts, they will prosecute you with Negligence, which will wipe your loan with that bank but prevent you from taking any more loans for 4 seasons, and you will face criminal punishment.

Job Opportunities
Banks provide great opportunities for math-savvy players who want to earn some decent money. A number of positions are available at banks.

Bank Teller
A simple job that involves interfacing with customers and performing simple tasks to help them manage their accounts.
 * Job Type: Labour
 * Income: Hourly ($24 + Rank Value)
 * Promotion: 15 hours
 * Qualification: None

Bank Manager
Bank Managers are responsible for the day-to-day runnings of each bank, paying employees, and motivating your staff towards success.
 * Job Type: Management
 * Income: Salary ($1080 pqs + Bonus) (minimum 4 hours pqs)
 * Promotion: 23 hours
 * Qualification: Insignatory of Economics, OR 25 hours experience as Senior Bank Teller

Actuary
Actuaries are highly sought after workers who are highly skilled mathematicians, calculating long-term risk analysis and quantifying contingent outcomes. While requiring advanced qualifications, it is extremely rewarding.
 * Job Type: Intellectual
 * Income: Salary (2440 pqs + Bonus) (minimum 6 hours pqs)
 * Promotion: 25 hours
 * Qualification: Excelliary of Statistics + Insignatory of Economics

Benefits to Communities
Player Communities, such as clubs, guilds or organisations, will also benefit from the services offered by banks. The options are relatively similar to the services open to players, with the exception that accounts and vaults are associated with the community rather than an individual player.

Community Accounts
Any member who has Treasury privileges can open, access, and maintain a community account. This will be tied to the community, and someone replaces them, the new player will have access and the original player will not. This is the only type of account communities have available, and each one costs $200 to set up. For clubs, there is no periodic fee. Guilds have a periodic fee of $150 pqs, while organisations have a periodic fee of $250 pqs.

Treasurers of the community can set access rights for each account to certain ranks within the community. For example, Recruits may not be able to deposit or withdraw from the community account, while a member may be able to deposit but not withdraw. A team leader may be able to both deposit and withdraw a restricted amount per day. All of these options must be accessed from the Community Manager NPC in each bank.

Community Vaults
Vaults work similarly to personal Vault storage, except that the initial storage amount is 1000 slots. This vault storage is available upon purchasing a community account, and for each additional account the bank adds a free 100 additional slots to the storage. Extra space further to this can be purchased at a rate of $200 per 100 slots. Clubs can have a maximum of 1500 slots, Guilds a maximum of 2500, while Organisations have a limit of 5000 slots.

Community Vaults do not have the Courier service, and items must be deposited or withdrawn from the bank itself.

NPCs
A list of NPCs found within most banks are as follows:
 * Bank Tellers: Modify or update your banking accounts.
 * Vault Tellers: Manage your vault storage at the bank.
 * Customer Representative: If the bank is hiring, you will be able to talk to this NPC to acquire a job. Customer Representatives will also help answer any questions you have about banking, and will give directions to all NPCs within the bank. They can generally be found in the foyer.
 * Security Guard: What's a bank without security? When you enter a bank they will collect any weapons you have and return them upon yoru departure.
 * Loans Broker: Request a loan, or inquire about one.
 * Community Manager: Set up or manage accounts for your community.
 * Bank Manager: Non-interactable. Manages the bank.
 * Actuary: Non-interactable. Forecasts the economic climate.