Charter of the Direnni Bank

Opened in Skyrim by the Heir of Balfiera, who created this Bank for House Direnni. The House owns it. It continues for so long as the House does. The death of the Heir does not close it, empty it, or open it as his personal estate. Medora Direnni remains head of the family, with authority over Direnni ventures. She did not grant this Bank. Ownership in the House does not place the ledger in the Tower, and she does not set its rates or warrant its batches. Operating in accordance with Imperial commercial law, and under the commission of no faction.

House Direnni has kept books for three thousand years and has not ruled anything for most of them. This is what the Bank does, what it charges, and what it will not do.

Who sets what. The Tower has family authority over Direnni ventures. It does not set this Bank's rates and does not warrant its batches. House Direnni owns the Bank. The Heir of Balfiera holds its ledger and sets every figure printed below — the rates, the fees, the minimums, the maximums and the terms — warrants every bond issue, and approves what this charter says he approves. That keeping is an office of the House. It passes to the next Heir of Balfiera. The Counting House enters those figures in the Bank's books and keeps them; its Management is answerable to the keeper of the ledger for the till, the reserve and the reconciliation. Every change to a figure is signed: the books record who entered it, when, and what it replaced, and that record is not editable by the person who made it.

Every figure in this charter is the Heir's current setting, published from the Bank's own books at the moment you read this page. He may adjust any of them with notice, and this charter will then say the new number rather than the old one.

The Bank shall provide the services set out below. Any operation outside this list requires the Heir's approval.

Article I — Banking Services

The Bank shall provide the means to open and transact through an account.

Interest. Accounts accumulate 0.3% interest weekly on their balance. Interest is accrued daily at one seventh of the weekly rate, computed on that day's ending balance — so a day's interest is posted once the day is over, and today's appears tomorrow. Because the septim is not divisible on our books, a day's interest is rounded down to the whole septim; a balance too small to earn one septim in a day earns nothing that day. The Bank states this plainly rather than leaving it to be discovered.

Who may hold an account. Holds, businesses and individuals are all eligible, provided they meet the requirements below. The house does not ask whose banner a customer keeps, and Article VII says what that means.

Opening. A minimum deposit of 1,000 septims is required to open an account. Once open, the account minimum reverts to 200 septims. A one-time service fee of 150 septims is charged to open the account, and is paid separately from the opening deposit — it is not taken out of it, and appears on the statement as its own line.

Maintenance. Each week, a further 50 septims is charged against the account to cover maintenance (posted on Monday, after that day's interest). Where an account holds less than the fee, the Bank takes what is there and does not carry the remainder as a debt.

The Bank's house operating account is the Bank's own books: it does not earn Article I interest, it does not pay those customer fees, and it is not an Article X depositor.

Withdrawal. The holder may withdraw or deposit during business hours, at the counter, in the presence of a banker. A withdrawal may not take a balance below the account minimum of 200 septims; the holder may draw down to exactly that figure and no further. Closing an account is a separate act and releases the remainder.

Transaction limits. The Heir sets a floor and, where he judges it necessary, a ceiling on any single transaction. As matters currently stand:

Transfers. Internal transfers to another account are permitted at the direction of the source account holder, and at their direction alone.

Article II — Attendance at the Counter

This Article is particular to the Direnni Bank and the house considers it the most important line in the charter.

An account is transacted in person. A customer's business is conducted only while a banker has opened a counter session with them and the customer has accepted it. Both parties, every time. A banker may invite; only the customer may accept. Either party may close the session, and the Bank's clock closes it in any event: an invitation stands for 30 minutes, and an accepted session for 240 minutes.

Outside a session the Bank is shut to you. Your balances, your statement and your accounts are not readable and not movable when you are not standing at the counter. This is not a limitation of the Bank's books; it is the Bank's position on what an account is. Nobody's money moves because somebody sat down at a desk somewhere and decided it should.

Every act is attributed. Each line of a statement records the banker who executed it and the session it happened in. Nothing is posted anonymously and nothing is posted outside a session except the Bank's own interest and fees.

The counter is kept by whoever the house trusts to keep it. Standing in House Direnni — Kin of the Tower, Dumonte of Gavaudon, or Retainer sworn to the Heir — grants nothing at this counter and bars nothing either. A Retainer of any race may hold any office in the Bank, up to and including the keeping of its books.

Article III — Secure Storage · opening soon

The Bank shall provide the means to hold goods and assets in safekeeping. Access to safety deposit boxes is had during posted hours and transacted through a clerk. All items stored are recorded and accounted for by the Bank, with insurance issued to guarantee their safekeeping. The Bank shall not access the contents of a box except by the customer's authorisation, by the order of a court of the hold in which the Counting House stands, or by an emergency of security.

This service is intended for high-value assets and is not to be used as common storage. A one-time service fee of 100 septims reserves space, and includes one box holding up to 10 items. Maintaining a box costs 50 septims weekly, and additional boxes may be leased at 50 septims weekly each.

Items prohibited under Imperial law, or under the law of the hold in which the Counting House stands, are prohibited from storage in the Bank.

Article IV — Bonds

The Bank makes available to the general public the issuance of bonds.

What a bond costs and what it pays. A bond is issued at 1,000 septims and carries a rate, currently 10%. The rate is paid once, on the face value, at the end of the term — so a bond bought at today's rate costs 1,000 septims, earns 100 septims, and pays 1,100 septims at maturity. Because the septim does not divide on the Bank's books, a rate too small to earn a whole septim on the face value earns nothing, in the same way and for the same reason as Article I's interest.

A bond is locked to the rate it was issued at. The Heir may move the rate at any time and this charter will then print the new one, but a bond already issued is not repriced by it, ever. The figure written on a certificate the day it was bought is the figure the Bank pays. This is the promise the whole Article rests on, and the Bank's books hold the rate on the certificate itself rather than looking it up when the time comes to pay.

Term and maturity. A bond has a term of 30 days and matures at the end of the last of them. It becomes redeemable once that day has ended — the Bank's books mark it so of their own accord, on the same daily pass that posts an account's interest — and it may not be redeemed before then. The term is what the bond pays for.

Bought and redeemed at the counter. A bond is purchased in person, in an open counter session, exactly as a deposit is: Article II governs a bond as it governs everything else the Bank does. The price is taken from the buyer's own account and the redemption is paid back into it, so a bond appears on the holder's statement as its own line going out and two lines coming back — the principal, and the interest beside it rather than folded into it. A bond may therefore be bought only by somebody who holds an account here.

Not tradeable, and redeemable only by its holder. A bond may not be sold, assigned, pledged or transferred, and the Bank will pay it to nobody but the individual or entity to whom it was issued. A banker presented with a bond by a third party is not permitted to redeem it, whatever is offered as authority.

Issued in batches, by the Heir's warrant. Bonds are not sold continuously. The Heir warrants a batch of a stated size — currently 100 — and the warrant fixes the price, the rate and the term for every bond sold under it. The counter sells until the batch is exhausted and then sells no more until the Heir warrants another. One warrant stands open at a time, so the counter has one rate to offer and no discretion over it. A warrant may be withdrawn by the Heir before it is exhausted; bonds already sold under it are untouched by the withdrawal.

Early redemption is not a right. The Counting House may, at its own discretion and in circumstances it will state, return a bond's face value before the term has run. The interest is forfeit in full where it does: the principal comes back and the bond pays nothing. Every such act is signed in the Bank's books with the name of the person who authorised it, the interest given up, and the reason — and no banker at the counter may do it.

Article V — Loans

The Bank shall make available to credit-worthy holds, businesses and individuals the issuance of loans. Eligibility varies; the general guidelines are as follows.

• Individuals may borrow for property purchases, commercial ventures, or other needs, on approval.
• Businesses may borrow for property purchases, working capital, equipment financing, expansion, inventory, or other needs, on approval.
• Holds and regional authorities may borrow for infrastructure financing, emergency financing, economic stimulus, or other needs, on approval.

Loans fall into three bands, set by the Heir. The bands do not overlap: each begins one septim above where the last ends.

The principal of a loan may not exceed what the branch at which it is sealed may still lend after its reserve.

Interest is agreed as a percentage of the principal and may not exceed 100%. It is a share of the principal for the whole term.

The term is a number of weeks and may not exceed 8 weeks.

Repayment is one installment each week, the total of principal and interest divided across those weeks.

Loans are subject to terms negotiated at approval. Once a contract is sealed, no term of it changes, and repayment is collected in adherence with its schedule. Issuance depends on a credit review, verification of income, and either adequate collateral or a vetted co-signatory. Current terms may be discussed with the Counting House. Failure to keep to a repayment schedule results in the actions the contract defines, and in no others. The Bank does not send a warband after a debtor; it has not raised one in three thousand years and does not propose to begin over a missed instalment.

Article VI — Operations

The Bank shall maintain the following procedures in the operation of the Counting House and the services rendered from it.

Fractional Reserve

The Bank shall operate on a fractional reserve, allowing capital to flow into other avenues of investment while an adequate liquid reserve is retained against immediate withdrawal. The reserve stands at 25% of deposit value, held immediately available against ordinary demand. The remainder may be put to loans, investments, interest payments and bond fulfilment.

The ratio may be temporarily raised or lowered by the Heir, for emergency liquidity or to restrain extraordinary withdrawals. Should extraordinary withdrawals occur, the Heir may call on the Tower for emergency capital.

A reserve minimum of 20,000 septims stands beneath the ratio. Whatever the deposit value, the Bank shall not go below it.

Till Operation · opening soon

On opening the posted business hours, the Counting House transfers a working cash balance of 2,000 septims from the reserve to the till. Where the till needs more, it is drawn from the reserve in increments of that amount. Every movement between till and reserve is logged and is carried out by Management.

On closing, the amount returned to the reserve is reconciled against the opening float and the withdrawals and distributions of those hours. Management may not leave until the till is reconciled.

Accounting and Auditing

The Bank shall maintain complete records of deposits, withdrawals, interest payments, loans, bonds, reserve balances, till balances, safety deposit leases and safety deposit inventory.

The Bank's ledger is append-only. No entry is ever edited or removed; an error is corrected by a new, signed, reasoned entry posted against it, so the record of what happened survives the record of what should have happened. Every balance the Bank quotes is derived from that ledger.

A cash reconciliation and transaction review is carried out weekly by Management. A review of adherence to policy, tying out all financial records, is carried out at the Heir's request, and its findings go to the Tower.

Branches and Caravans

An account is assigned to one branch. Business may be done at any open branch. The Counting House may change the assignment. Settlement between branches, and between a branch and the House, is by caravan, and a caravan does not alter a depositor's balance.

Employee Regulations

Management sets weekly Counting House hours at the start of the week and is responsible for being present in the Counting House throughout them. Clerks and security choose which of the posted hours they work and are paid accordingly; there is no limit on hours worked, provided they fall within the hours Management has posted. Management is responsible for the opening and closing of each period it has posted. Payment is distributed fortnightly for each hour worked.

Article VII — Whose Coin, and Whose Writ

House Direnni serves no faction. There is no Dominion service, no Legion oath, no Stormcloak oath, and no East Empire Company charter behind this Bank. It is a commercial position before it is a political one, and it has two consequences a customer should read carefully.

Every coin is the same coin. The Bank does not ask whose banner a customer keeps, and it does not price an account by the answer. Legion pay, Stormcloak levy, Dominion remittance and hold revenue are all deposited on the same terms, at the same rates, at the same counter. A refusal on that ground is not a thing any banker of this house is permitted to make.

No faction's writ reaches an account here. Deposits are not surrendered on a demand from an army, a Thalmor justiciar, an emissary, or a claimant to a throne. The Bank recognises three things against an account and no others: the holder's own instruction given at the counter, the order of a court of the hold in which the Counting House stands, and the terms of a contract the holder sealed. A siege changes none of them.

The house's neutrality is not for sale and not for lease. The Bank will not finance a campaign, garrison a claim, or lend on the security of ground held by force of arms. It will bank the merchants who supply all sides, which is the trade it is in.

Article VIII — What Stands Behind the Bank

A bank is worth its collateral. This one's is unusual, and is stated here rather than implied.

Age. Clan Direnni is the oldest elven house still standing on Tamriel. The family held High Rock from the Adamantine Tower on Balfiera three thousand years ago, and holds Balfiera still. Institutions that intended to outlive it have not.

Quiet. The house came down off the mainland when its rule there passed to Breton vassals, and it has not fought a war in the three thousand years since. A house at war spends its reserve on soldiers; the customers of this one are not lending it to a campaign by accident, because there is not one.

Trade. The Bank is funded by a working trade and not solely by the deposits it holds.

The name. What is pledged behind this charter is the standing of House Direnni, which is the only asset the family has kept continuously for three thousand years and the one it is least willing to spend. The Adamantine Tower is not collateral and is not offered as any; the name is, and it is the more expensive of the two to lose.

Article IX — The Ledger and the Figures in It

The Heir holds the ledger. Authority over prices and contracts is his while he holds that office, and this charter is the published form of it. A rate, a fee, a minimum, a maximum or a term changes because he has set it, and for no other reason.

Management enters the change and cannot hide it. The Counting House records a new figure in the Bank's books. Every such entry names the person who made it, the figure it replaced, the figure that replaced it and the moment it happened, in a record that is added to and never rewritten. A figure the books cannot account for is not in force.

The charter follows the books, not the other way round. Every figure in this document is read from the Bank's own books at the moment the page is drawn, so an adjusted rate appears here as soon as it is entered, and a charter quoting a fee the counter does not charge is a fault rather than a disagreement. What is printed above is what the Bank will do today.

House Direnni owns this Bank. The Heir created it and opened it in Skyrim. His death does not end the Bank, and it does not make the deposits his estate. The books, the charter, and the sums owed to depositors remain. The keeping of the ledger passes to the next Heir of Balfiera. Medora Direnni remains head of the family and has authority over Direnni ventures; she does not set this Bank's rates or warrant its batches by that authority. Neither the House nor the Heir owns its depositors' money, and the Article that follows says what happens to that money if the Bank ever fails.

Article X — Miscellaneous

Depositors are paid first. The Bank maintains protection on all amounts deposited into an account. In the event of insolvency, account holders are paid out before any other claim, including the house's own.

Exposure is spread. The Bank shall diversify its lending, limit its exposure to any single borrower, maintain capital reserves, and actively monitor default rates.

No single borrower shall hold loans exceeding 15% of bank capital without the approval of the Heir.

Rates may be adjusted with notice, in the manner Article IX describes, and the figures above are today's.

Article XI — The Bazaar

The Direnni Bazaar is a house market under the Direnni Bank. A clerk admits a person before they may see the board or place an order. A person may post a buy order or a sell order in whole septims. An order rests until it is filled or cancelled. A buy that meets a sell is filled at the Bazaar. Septims may be paid from a Direnni Bank account or handed to the clerk. Goods are handed to the clerk with a sell order, and collected from the clerk when a buy is filled.

Listing fee. 0 septims is taken once when an order is placed. It is not returned if the order is cancelled.

Sales tax. 0% of the seller's proceeds is kept by the house on each fill, rounded down to a whole septim. The buyer pays the fill price. A zero rate pays the seller the whole fill.

Sealed in Skyrim by the Heir of Balfiera. A debt weighed is a debt paid.