Only Miniconomy Ventures can start banks. Here people can save and borrow money. To start a bank, you need to build the building. When you have done this, you can go to Property and enter the bank manager to organize it. For instance, you can set the interest rate for a savings account and for loans, the administration costs and transaction costs, the maximum money for loans, the name and description of your bank, and so on.
Banks offer three different products: loans, bank accounts, and savings accounts. The latter is an account on which the money is frozen for a number of days and where interest is accumulated over it. When the owner wishes to take his money back earlier, he has to pay a fine. A bank account does not receive interest; the main goal for these accounts is that you are able to make money transfers with it and to prevent robbing.
When people want a loan at a bank, they must first acquire an approval from the bank manager. Therefore they have to file in a request for a loan, in which they can explain why they need the money. Make sure that you never issue loans with an expiration date later than the end of the round. Also look at the borrower's background; will he/she be able to pay back the loan?
Loans are automatically claimed (including interest) after the expiration date has passed. This will only happen when the player has enough money. When he doesn't, and the player can't get this money together any other way, a Financial Civil Servant will take over the case. He has the power to declare someone bankrupt. It is also possible to pay back a loan earlier than the agreed date. The player however must pay interest for the complete agreed repayment.
The bank owner can use money from the vault, however this lowers the coverage of the bank. On a scale from 0 to 5 stars, the bank will drop one star when they are unable to pay out someone's money. When this happens five times, the bank will be closed. This also happens when a bank is robbed a couple of times.
Building a bank
To build a bank you require:
Opening a bank account
To open a bank account, you have to live in a Skyscraper. When you live in a Skyscraper, you can pick a bank that complies to your wishes, such as low transaction costs etc. Find the button Open bank account and click on it, a confirmation screen will open.
Transferring money
To transfer money, you need a bank account. When you have an account, go to the upper left corner (below your account name) and click on bank. Scroll down in the screen that opened, and look at the Transfer money-header. Fill in the details and send the money.
WATCH OUT! For amounts of money sent to a player exceeding 100 ISH per week you need to set up a Contract.