Open Coruscant Banking Business

[Vilgur Sapent]

Coruscant Financial District - Zone 34 - Nighttime​

Vilgur sat in the back of his Senate speeder, looking at the skyline of Coruscant. It was already dark on this part of the planet, and the lights of tall skyscrapers lit up the night, like electric pillars of energy. His destination was towards the large pillar now in front of him, slightly taller than the buildings around it. Inside, Vilgur knew, were the offices of the Bank of the Core; the largest financial institute in the Republic, and possibly the Galaxy. As he approached it, the traffic controller comes on with a holo. His chauffeur, Gerdo, listens and steers the speeder to a platform at the docking hangar in the belly of the tower.

Vilgur nods and stands up, stepping out of the speeder carefully. He turns to his chauffeur. "I will be here for the coming two hours, Ger. You can take the speeder and get yourself a drink. Not to much though: I will comm you when I'm 5 minutes out." He smiled and waved as Gerdo nodded and took off, slowly. Then, he turned to the doors. He knew little about the layout of the tower, but his journey would take him up, to the Directors' Floor itself. He entered the turbolift, and pressed the button clearly labelled 'Directors Office's.

The ride was uneventful, however he did have a nice view of the outside sky. He knew little about the area, however he saw that the entire district was dedicated to Finance. Two others buildings caught his eye: the Huosnoughow Foundation, and the TaggeCo Office. The former he would be visiting tomorrow. The think tank had been able to survive the Empire and the First Order, and still remained a valuable advisor to the Senate. He would like to hear their advice as well. The latter had a bit of nasty history: Tagge had been associated with so much of the Imperial oppression that the company now carried a bad name. Still, in terms of food distribution, Vilgur would also need their services to succeed in his plans. At long last, the turbolift stopped, and the door opened. As he turned around, the Floor came in view.

He entered the skybox, and he took a view below. He rose in surprise. Vilgur knew that the Bank of the Core employed literally millions in its company. But the floor belowed him appeared to hold no less than 10,000 people. Then he saw the logo and the designation on the Wall, 'Strategic Direction Division', and he understood. He was on floor 629, no less. The tower must be holding more than hundreds of these chambers, he thought. He was softly interrupted in his gaze by the arrival of a secretary. "Senator Sapent?" the young Twi'lek said. Vilgur nodded. "Director Kaybor has been expecting you." The secretary continued, stretching out her arm and waving at the door. Vilgur nodded and smiled. "I thank you." He answered and went for the door.

The door opened with a swish, revealing a small antechamber. The secretary smiled and then turned to the office behind the second door. "Sir, the Senator has arrived." She said. VIlgur could not hear an answer nor knew if there was any, but the secretary turned and nodded. Vilgur then approached the door and entered. The director was standing behind his seat, relaxed, with one hand on the backrest. He smirked as Vilgur entered. "Senator Sapent." he said. Vilgur approached and nodded, before smiling back. "Director Kaybor." he answered. Kaybor nodded again and gestured to the seat across his desk. "Please, take a seat." He said. Vilgur nodded and sat down, as Kaybor did across him. "My predecessor Naey'lun was good friends with your father. Your family has quite some history with our Bank." the director said. Vilgur nodded. "I was aware of that, Director..." Now Kaybor chuckled and shook his head slightly. "Please, let us forestall titles. I rebuke the official name of 'Director'. I do not 'direct' this Bank. My preferred title would be 'President'. I only 'preside', temporarily, over the business of this Bank. Before me, my predecessors did, and after me, my successors will. But for now, you can call me Uscal."

Vilgur smiled and nodded in approval at the assessment. "Allright then. Call me Vilgur." Uscal nodded. "As you wish, Vilgur. I must admit, I was a bit surprised to receive your call. Rarely does the Senate pay heed to the affairs of the Banks of the Galaxy. Except if it concerns the IGBC, but that is, considering its history, more than warranted." He said. Vilgur smiled again. "My call was made as a request. The Senate, or rather I and anyone who thinks like myself, wish to render your services. We require large funds for the establishment of our development programs." He answered. Uscal rose a brow, "And what would be our Bank's return to such services?" Vilgur folded his hands. "Consider it 'humanitarian' aid. With the current state of the galaxy, my hope was that the Bank of the Core would be willing to provide the Senate with such funds." Uscal scratched his left cheek for a moment, before he stood up. Vilgur followed him. With a push of a button, and window that had been opaque turned transparent. The view was like the one he saw before: the floor below him. Uscal looked for a moment and then turned to Vilgur again. "The entire floor of level 628 is made up of the 'Strategic Direction Division'. The two levels beneath it, as well. Some thirty-four thousand employees work in this division for one single purpose, our company's lifeblood: 'maintain good fiscal health'. From the 600 levels below it, to these top floors are sent every single matter of fiscal asset: loans, grants, liabilities, insurances, savings and debts. From the two thousand savings account to buy you a new speederbike; to the fifty million insurance deposit of the Galaxies Opera House. Our employees labour endlessly to preserve the precarious balance upon which this and every other bank in the galaxy rests: one the one scale, the access of all civilians to our services; on the other, our Bank's very continuance." Vilgur nodded. "I would like to see them up close, then." he asked. Uscal nodded, and gestured to the door. Instead of the turbolift, the stairs were enough, as it was only one floor.

 

[Vilgur Sapent]

Ten Minutes later​

Uscal walked with the Senator across the floor of level 627. Vilgur knew that with all the corporate secrets, the director could tell little about the actual job of the employees on the floor. But Uscal did his best to explain the importance of the division. They had now stopped at a small separate office, labelled 'Galactic Insurances'. Vilgur foresaw that this office monitored the million credit deposits of many of the Galaxy's biggest corporations and institutions. They sat down on one of the sofas in the corner of the room. "As you can see, this Bank has stood for centuries. We have survived the Old Republic, the Empire, the New Republic, and even the First Order. Do not mistake me: it was not for any scheming or undertakings we accomplished this. The fate of this Bank is tied to the galactic stability of the Credit. We have worked with these governments best we could: the Republic we served with dignity; the Empire and First Order were less than amicable, but they too understood our importance."

Vilgur nodded. "I understand wholeheartedly. But the matter before us requires an influx of credits and personnel. Such is the promise I, and those who think alike me, want to make to the people of the Republic and the Free Worlds. The Sith are on the move, and we must provide anyone we can with safety and security." Uscal shrugged. "You know I would like to hand over all the credits in the safe. But this matter requires a lot of administration. Insurance accounting; Liability assessments; even something as simple as Rent calculations." Vilgur nodded. "The manner of administration you can carry out as you will: the matter for which these funds are requested will not be on the Senate floor for a long time. My request is that you do this." Uscal chuckled. "The size of this mere request will take some time, and even then, I cannot guarantee that the liability assessment will grant you the needed funds. Your Senate is in enough debt, and in a state of recession. I must observe the first Law of Banking: buy low, sell high." He answered.

Vilgur crossed his arms in thought. "And recession breeds problems for financial reserves. I understand. But I would like to know if this request can even be negotiated?" he asked. Now, Uscal smiled. "Anything is negotiable inside this tower, Vilgur. The requirements to make those negotiations fruitful, however, are different from one to another." Vilgur nodded, and scratched his chin in thought. "I know that there is no choice but to consider these funds as a long-term loan. I am willing to see if I can press with the Senate Treasury that two things are at least imparted with these loans: first, that they are consolidated; and two, that the Senate present a solid repayment plan, with forbearance as an option." Uscal now grumbled, as if thinking on the proposal. "The problem with forbearance payments on this amount of loan is that we as a Bank are required to deposit a large sum of liability assets for a long time, and that does not help with the fiscal security in these kinds of loans." Vilgur nodded, and Uscal raised his hand to an employee. "I understand where you are coming from: these loans are for 'humanitarian' reasons. In most cases, that gives us a bit more leeway as we see that those financial investments pay off in the long term. But with the current state of recession, it is tricky."

The employee came over with a datapad with some facts, and then returned to his desk. Uscal took the datapad in hand and looked at Vilgur. "Now we can hypothesize and I can give you some answers. Can you give me some numbers?" he said, tapping the datapad. Vilgur nodded. "The appropriations has been calculated by my financial staff at around 467 billion. Now the budgetary room in the Ministries that are involved is about 100 billion. So I need nearly 370 billion in loans, over a time of no less than 5 years." he said. Uscal tapped his datapad several times and then nodded. "Considering a fixed interest rate loan or a variable rate?" he asked. Vilgur thought for a moment. "Is there a reason to consider each?" Uscal chuckled. "Looking at the current treasury rate, of 0.94%, it would be in your interest to consider fixed rate, as it is very low. I can however not assure you that the financial advisement on that will be good. I don't know where it will land in negotiations." he said. Vilgur nodded and grumbled. "Let us then forego that detail. How long will you need?" he now inquired. Uscal thought for a moment. "Considering that you require billions, which is a size of credits our accountants always struggle with, I would think we need about a week. I will keep you informed." he said, before signalling to another employee, who took the datapad and left for another room. "Now is there anything else we can do, Vilgur?" he asked. But Vilgur stood up and shook his head. "I believe the inquiry into almost 170 billion credits will be enough for today." He smiled. Uscal smiled back and nodded. "It is a tall order, but no taller than when the Minister of Education asked for 2 trillion credits to establish the Senate Archives some two-hundred years ago. Considering inflation, that would be about 40 thousand quadrillion credits today. It is a public secret, but I can tell you: the Bank of the Core monitors no less than ten octillion credits in the Galaxy." He raised his hand for a shake. "It is always a pleasure to service the Senate, Senator Sapent. I hope that we can make this work, with good negotiations that serve both you and us." Vilgur smiled and shook the hand. "The pleasure has been mine, Director Kaybor." with that, the two walked to the turbolift. With a final nod, Uscal said goodbye to Vilgur. He nodded back, and pressed the button for the hangar. Uscal kept smiling, and then the lift door closed with a swish.

Vilgur pressed the comms to signal Gerdo. He nodded with confidence: the first steps in his plans had been made. The Bank would require research of course, and the Senate would be sending tough negotiators to conclude the deal. But at least he had found it was possible. Tomorrow he would be talking to the others: the conservative accountants of Huosgnoughow, and the food giant TaggeCo. Especially that last conversation he was less than happy about. But it was necessary: after he would get the social-economic parties on his side, the conversations with Senators would start. And those were the real trouble...