Spreadsheets, banks, oh my!

[Cathul Thuku]

Banking. An area once considered the province of dark-siders. But she still was a Witch, and, in the wake of the referendum that forced Ringo Vinda to leave the Silver Jedi Order, Ringo Vinda is becoming a prime location for cheap property on a desert world and in the Aldanna Range, among Gungans, who are a product of the Netherworld. The banking regulations of the planet were rather lax, almost reminiscent of what they were during the Ckone Wars when it was the property of the [First] Confederacy, even though one of the big-ticket members of the Corporate Alliance, as affiliated to the [Second] Confederacy, is based on this planet. Cathul pored over the spreadsheet where she pondered opening a new location on Ringo Vinda. She knew the Silver Jedi, while corporate-funded (as is the case with the Jedi in Confederate service), had no clue about banking; even if they embraced corporate ownership and control much more readily than the NJO, they still considered banking an area where Jedi can readily fall to the dark side. As if owning shipyards or an electronics company wouldn't!

"Can anyone tell me why it seemed to be a good idea to make our first foray into banking?"

"I run Clan Lok's investment portfolio, remember? This planet has poor access to insurance, and real estate"

"This spreadsheet indicates that, for this to work, we're going to need all three under the same roof: insurance, banking, realty"

"And also, in these troubled times, deposit insurance is important, which this planet seems to lack"

 

[Cathul Thuku]

"Confederates?"

"We provided the Confederates with deposit insurance, to the tune of 100k coverage. There's no reason the population won't accept the same here"

"Why 100,000 credits?"

"100k credits will allow a small business to keep going and many non-defense light industries can run on this much until emergency funding can be secured, plus the everyday client won't have that much, especially the lower classes"

So long as the new bank won't be a Ponzi scheme, the Radar of Mandalore is good to go. But Cathul has to remember that organic workers, like financial advisors/planners, and, of course, some BX-series commando droids, is her idea of how to run a bank in terms of the workforce. And, of course, some legal department for each branch, as well as some IT support staff for the mishaps. She has taken up to buying office space that is left for sale. Oh, of course, in the financial world, there are boom-and-bust cycles, and clearly the referendum made the bust part happen much faster than would otherwise happen. And Cathul knew best about their real estate implications, better than almost any other Jedi could hope to. But she also knew that bubbles occurred when people operated under the false assumption that real estate values would keep climbing forever, especially under low interest rates that could fuel heavy speculation.

 

[Cathul Thuku]

Ponzi schemes, named after Ponzi the Hutt, were about investors getting the money from other investors down the chain, rather than from natural investments. So long as Cathul wasn't making a Ponzi the Hutt out of herself, she was fine. But here comes the time for the grand opening of the Ringo Vinda branch of the company. It was so massive, and it also featured all three especially since it took up nearly 30,000 square feet of space, big enough to feel impersonal and also big enough to provide all three to an entire city subvidision of Quendelton. Enough to chuck in nearly 200 staffers, 50 each of insurance agents and realtors, with all the requisite workspace to afford a cubicle with the proper equipment. As Cathul made her approach towards the ribbon, with this location's general counsel, that is, its chief lawyer, was about to hand her the scissors to cut the ribbon open so that the mega-bank could open:

"You're worse than the Tunroth around mortuaries!" the general counsel told Cathul.

"This is our flagship location on Ringo Vinda, the way each planet's worth of a flagship location is like, especially Coruscant. Other locations on this planet will be smaller"

 

[Cathul Thuku]

"What do you mean, I'm worse than Tunroth around mortuaries?"

"Because you build such massive locations. On Coruscant or Elrood I would understand, but Quendelton is just a rather average city on a galactic scale"

And so Cathul cut the red ribbon; she was handed the main key to the bank branch. The BX-series commando droids were whirring to life: they opened the secondary set of doors to the bank branch. The bank was on the first floor, the realtors on the second and the insurance agents on the third and top floor, with the support staff in the basement. Now the 200 or so staff were posing for a picture in front of the main gate of the bank, where a camera drone took a panoramic picture of the with Cathul front and center, without beskar, simply wearing a business formal suit. It was nice for Cathul that she actually knew when to wear Jedi robes vs. a beskar'gam vs. other clothing, unlike other Jedi in Mandalorian service, who always seemed to wear a beskar'gam in nearly every occasion. There she was, opening a bank branch, with such a large amount of staffers that it will undoubtedly attract the attention of the locals in this neighborhood.

 

[Cathul Thuku]

"Take out a loan at IGR today and you'll get three months interest-free!"

"Jedi, in the business of moneylending? What are you, a Confederate or something?"

"You guys chose to leave the Silver Jedi: while business is a thing to them, moneylending is an area they never dared touch and left to NFUs"

Cathul, a Confederate? She might have a high-level Confederate contact, all right, but that doesn't make her a Confederate! But that was to be expected, since she was on the planet where one of the major Confederate corporate sponsors was headquartered and the current powers-that-be on Ringo Vinda seem to be close to neither the Silver Jedi, nor the Mandalorians. Plus Cathul looked nothing like Jedi in Mandalorian service. And, to the eyes of the locals, Alliance Jedi were not much more willing to enter banking and moneylending than even Silver Jedi were, in fact, even less than the SJ were. Puzzling that, pending even credit checks, Cathul would be able to She truly was a financial witch renowned as such in both Mandalorian and Alliance circles, to the point of being called Confederate, at least on Ringo Vinda; the [Second] Confederacy of Independent Systems lived much better to its ideals than the first one, at least as it currently exists.

 

[Cathul Thuku]

"Oh, Master Jedi, I heard that you were taking out a loan here and we'd get 3 months interest-free?"

"Yes, what do you need to take out a loan for?"

"I'll be putting my home as a collateral"

"Mortgage?"

Ah, the topic of mortgages. The client was taken to Cathul's temporary office for the day, where she was to be an accounts manager since the actual accounts manager was busy with another client. That was right up Cathul's alley: in the past three months, she was often called upon by other Jedi, Alliance or Silver, for her expertise of all things pertaining to mortgage and real estate. But since the Confederate Jedi were never dispatched on such missions - never did it cross the minds of the small cadre of Confederate Jedi to be involved in such matters since the Geonosians could just use Neimoidians to solve these sorts of problems - never did the Confederates even try. But the main factors for mortgage were the cost of the collateral (that is, the real estate property) vs. the term of the loan. Jedi should never force chain-sales upon a banking client. What Jedi can instead do is to offer better terms with the addition of an additional product but not deny the product entirely based on them not wanting to get the add-on.

 

[Cathul Thuku]

"Yes"

"How much is the home worth?"

"300,000 credits"

"How much do you think you can afford per month towards servicing the debt? Please, take into account that there is upkeep for your home"

"About 3,000 credits a month"

On Ringo Vinda, as well as on Dulvoyinn and Malastare, one could obtain what was commonly termed a McMansion for that cost: 8,000+ square feet homes with 5+ bedrooms/bathrooms. Cathul knew it was best to have a substantial down payment for a mortgage: that way one reduces the principal and thus the term can sometimes be reduced. Usually a longer term warrants higher interest rates. The bank may earn less on the short term with longer terms, but on the long term the bank will assuredly earn more, that much she knew about mortgaging and moneylending. If the borrower could repay the loan at the rate of 3,000 credits a month, a 10-year term would be reasonable. But, if they had a good down payment, Cathul sensed that they could offer a shorter term of lending, and 3 months of interest was a rather substantial amount, the shorter the term was. She did expect personal loans to be taken out, and unfortunately some would be lured by the offer of three months of free interest.

 

[Cathul Thuku]

"How much down payment can you afford?"

"50,000 credits"

"How stable is your source of income?"

"It's hard to say, the galactic job market is volatile"

Cathul knows better than to consider a job was stable; in this galactic job market, few could consider that they had job security. And it is not job security in terms of being able to be employed for life or otherwise long-term, even though it wasn't for life. Three years' worth of job security is already considered highly secure outside of light-sided civil service and, by modern-day banking practices, is the gold standard to consider a source of revenue to be stable. Jedi, even in Mandalorian service, claimed to be using the Force for defense (although Mandalorian Jedi were more aggressive than everyone else) and knowledge, yet they ruled out certain areas of knowledge believing that a Jedi possessing such knowledge would more readily fall to the dark side, and economics was one of the areas that were neglected and that could still be useful. Useful to a minority, mind you: those expected to either run businesses or engage in diplomatic negotiations on a regular basis.

 

[Cathul Thuku]

For 250,000 credits, a maximum of 3,000 credits a month, 10 years made sense. Cathul knew as much: she trusted that the borrower would be a responsible person, unlike so many who borrowed on a whim, especially dark-siders. These were the people she was most uncomfortable with, even in a strictly banking context. If the borrower had its paycheck weekly, it was preferrable to repay on a weekly basis, requesting an ACH weekly transfer of funds to cover the repayment of the loan, and same would go with any other repayment term for the loan. But Cathul knows better than to rest on her laurels: even though she knew about banking products better than almost any witch or Jedi in Mando service, and, in fact, better than the common person, she was rather thorough about the process of filling out the loan application. Yet there is one more question left, presumably because it was last in a loan application.

"At what frequency do paychecks occur? Weekly, bi-weekly, semi-monthly or monthly?"

"Bi-weekly"

"I believe we can agree on a 10-year loan. Do you prefer fixed or variable-rate?" Cathul asked as she calculated the payments under fixed-rate and the current rate under variable-rate.

"Fixed-rate: the rates are only expected to rise in this current environment"

 

[Cathul Thuku]

"Do you have a co-signer?"

"No"

"Then consider the loan application complete"

The loan application form is printed in two copies: one for the lender and one for the borrower. And an estimate for the payments. Plus she knew that, if a borrower had a co-signer in tow, the co-signer was also on the hook if the borrower failed to meet payments. And also the co-signer would get a copy of the loan application form. Small-time borrowers usually could do without a co-signer but certain types of loans couldn't be done without one: undergraduate student loans, for one, until certain conditions are met. Or when the borrower was minor-aged. She was relieved to see that the was not too troublesome. But credit checks were one thing that she would not do herself, even though they are a mainstay of banking (and were used for hiring people in the banking profession, although IGR seemed to prefer the ones with the worst credit records since they feel they are more motivated). When the documents were printed, she pointed at the dotted line for the borrower on both copies.

"Sign here"