Banking
The Banking Module is a submodule for Res Publica BUT does not require it to run and can be played in vanilla CK3, albeit with somewhat fewer options. It adds banks as a mid-late game option. So what does this module entail? Let’s cover it.
The banking window becomes available to you once one is founded, so it won’t be there at the start. The button for it is located in the bottom right corner of HUD, to the left of the date and game speed and to the right of the encyclopedia.
To do anything, you have to first join a bank. From there, you can store and withdraw funds, and take a loan if you feel it necessary. Loans will have to be paid back at a 3% yearly interest rate. So let’s move on from the bare basics onto some more specified parts
First things first: the reputation of a bank is paramount. Higher reputation makes people more likely to choose your bank, while if it drops below negative most people will leave it. Reputation is gained from age, your clientele, wealth, and if a republican family the respect of your family, while if a holy order the land held and piety of the faith’s leader.
You have 3 different interactions with members of your bank. If they have money stored in the bank, you can seize their account or freeze it (I wouldn’t recommend either of these unless you’re desperate or at war with them.) If they took out a loan, you can call in their debts (The AI will do this if you have the money to pay them or are just greedy.) One additional thing the head of a bank can do is the use bank funds option. Essentially, you can withdraw money from the bank without being limited by your account. It will still affect your account balance, but you can go negative (as if you had a loan) without needing to pay interest. You should still try to pay it back later of course.
Damaged reputation will recover over time, thankfully, and the negative modifier decays at a rate of 5/year. Frozen accounts mean that they can’t access them until unfrozen. Generally, the AI won’t seize or freeze accounts, since they know how bad it is for them.
So what comes with Res Publica enabled? Well, the only type of bank a player can use: house banks. These can be founded once your culture unlocks the banking innovation, in the High Medieval era. It costs you a fair bit of gold, and creates a bank that is passed down in your house throughout generations. A unique benefit they have is that when a bank calls in debts, the debtee has the ability to give land/titles to the bank head instead of gold. This can help republics expand through non-military means.
Holy order banks are the only form available in vanilla, and thus can’t be player controlled. These ones have a chance of being created yearly by holy orders such as the Knights Templar. There’s no a lot more to say about them since they’re your first form of banking, but it is notable that they do NOT require the banking innovation to be created.
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