Pacific Bank (Cyber Nations)
| Pacific Bank | |
|---|---|
| Cyber Nations branch | |
| Status | Merged to form Economic Affairs |
| Active from | Unknown to June 18, 2011 |
History
The Pacific Bank is known worldwide as the oldest, most effective, and longest lasting economic institution of the Cyberverse. Each and every Pacifican has - to a degree - come to rely on it as way to acquire the funds needed for nation growing and rebuilding; acquisition of technology, wonders, and improvements; military purchases; and, recently, reparations payment.
Much of the work of the bank, however, has always been silent, almost secret. While many have been the recipient of an aid package with an undecipherable description at one point or another, few know how the bank really works, and even less know how it was born. Being the one of the oldest departments in the New Pacific Order, many of the faces that gave birth to it are now gone, but not forgotten.
The Early Days
The Pacific Bank is one of our most respected institutions today and is the envy of the financial world; yet, it had relatively humble beginnings. Before the Bank was organized as we know it today, it was at heart a committee, made up of only a few members. Names of the past and present, famous and infamous: The Mighty Pump, The Multitude, Sweetmofugginj, King Justin and Frawley, to name a few.
Back in those days, banking was a very different endeavour than it is today; bankers not only fought in all wars, but they also continued to send aid during and after conflicts. It is hard to imagine, with war as it is now, such a method of banking working as such today. The dynamics of the game have completely changed. Due to the way we manage war, aid flow, and target acquisition we have become far more advanced than we could have believed. Some time after the Second Polar War , and at the height of the Order’s uncontested dominance, the Pacific Bank was formally institutionalized by that month’s (Ed. Note: Should note which month’s Alliance Council that was if you can find the information) Alliance Council. This was a turning point in both the structure and character of the bank, as it was finally formalized as a department.
Great Patriotic War
Shortly before the Great Patriotic War, the humble Bank of the Pacific was redesigned by the then-ruling Alliance Council. The committee of old was cast away and four new departments were created: War Aid, Improvements Aid, Loans and Tech, headed by jdwayne, King Justin, Admiral Lafiel, and Frawley, who was chosen, thanks to Sweetmojofugginj, to run the War Aid department.
What happened in the following weeks was a baptism of fire, with eight bankers servicing fifteen nations each; Pacifica entered the Great Patriotic War. This was the first true test for the banking system, and the lessons we learned were remarkable. It was during this time that the bank was forced, due to pure aid slot limitations, nuclear anarchy and a swamping of aid requests, to effectively rely on the good graces of donations to the bank in order to finance war time operations. It was after this war that Frawley stated that he owed his greatest debt to Sweetmojofugginj; for the lessons learned during this time would shape the first great reformation of the Pacific Bank.
Immediately after the war was over, the bank made its greatest and most well known mark in CN. In stunning form the bank pulled off a rebuilding scheme that has widely been lauded as the best reconstruction efforts CN has ever seen, thanks to highly efficient aid lists and aid chains that could stretch out over (at three slots a nation) to ninety-three nations. Multitude - a banker of old - was able to complete a chain that was worth, to most people’s disbelief, a staggering sixty-eight million Francos. To put it into perspective, the largest chain prior to this was Operation Reformentia can Kiss my Ass, conducted by Caritan, which was worth a mere three million in comparison. The achievement was huge. Sums sent by other bankers, although not insignificant, certainly paled in comparison to Multitude’s. All these efforts brought Pacifica back to the number 1 rank within a matter of weeks
The Pacific Bank
During the age of Dilber, the bank would play a very large role in peacetime growth operations and in preparations for war. During his reign the departmental heads were approached by Dilber to revamp the bank, clean up its process, increase its capacity and generally mantain it at the pinnacle of Cyber Nation’s financial institutions. To this end the bank removed the loans department and revamped the Tech Department in order to better suit the needs of Pacifica. Later during this same period of time, the bank suffered from widespread inactivity after a number of prominent members took simultaneous leaves of absence, largely crippling the bank. When the likes of xback87 and Josef Thorne joined the bank, it prompted the second great reformation, into a structure similar to that of today. Department heads were scrapped, and a Chairman/Executive structure was created. Due in no small part to some of the most vocal and contentious individuals in the Order joining the bank, membership blossomed as people flocked to find out what all the fuss was about. With morale high and aid flowing to both allies and members of the Order, no one expected the conflict that was to come next.
Prior to this time, bankers could be in both the Military Command and the Pacific Bank. Indeed many of them were. As a result of this and the high activity within the bank, many bankers were also lieutenants or assisted the lieutenants in the management of their battalions. During this time, Anthony had a fallout with a number of the MilCom bankers over not leaving peace mode in order to fight. Leaving peace mode and fighting was against a direct bank ruling. Drama ensued, and the fallout ended an era of co-operation between the Military Command and the Bank. The schism would remain until the eventual expulsion of Anthony coupled with the rise of Koona and Umbrae Noctem’s military command.
Only after the expulsion of Anthony did Frawley realize that the bank was similar to the cult of personality pushed by Anthony, with the slight difference that it preached dedication to the organization, instead of an individual. While this did build team spirit and cooperation, it severely damaged the Bank’s overall standing within the Order. With this in mind, the third and final reformation of the bank was pushed forward by the government without the support of the bankers. This reformation converted the bank into a purely merit based organization and saw the rise of Comrade Wasabi and LordStrider. Some of the character of the bank was lost as the old guards were shuffled out to make way for the new. This loss, however, allowed the forging of a new identity, one of absolute efficiency and timeliness, and the benefits of that are hard to argue against.
After the FAN war, the Pacific Bank primarily focused on peace time aid; although, packages of war aid and rebuild (Ed. Note: reconstruction might sound better than rebuild here) aid were sent out during and in the aftermath of the conflict. This fundamental change in focus can be largely attributed to the introduction of a mandatory warchest. The impact of which has given the bank a greater scope in terms of their operations.
With the rise of the Technology Corps as a department in its own right, the Bank coordinated several programs with them and other departments to further increase Pacifica’s power and dominion over the world. With the leadership of Frawley and LordStrider as Imperial Officers of Economic Affairs, Millionario first as chairman and later as Imperial Officer himself, and the chairmanship of Letum, the bank reached an average aid flow of 2.5 billion Francos per month through several different projects oriented to all the needs of Pacifica.
Armageddon War & the Future
During the Armageddon War, most of the Pacific Bank stayed in Peace Mode, due to Imperial orders to that effect. Many bankers wanted to help their comrades fight the largest war ever fought, and kept their hopes high, prepared to jump into the fight at a moment’s notice; however, such a call never came, and Pacifica was required to reach peace by signing the most abusive reparations ever designed by any coalition in CN history.
Since then, the bankers, first under Letum and now under the direction of Chairwoman Jasmine, have been dedicated to the speedy and constant payment of technology and cash reparations. With the unparalleled assistance of many Pacificans who have pledged their own funds in the assistance of this project, the Pacific Bank, along the Technology Corps and each and every member of the Order, has amazed the world not only with their efficiency in the payment of reparations but also in helping Pacifica, one step at a time, to regain its position at the top of CyberNations’ alliances.
Merger with the Tech Corps
At the end of the Doom House-NPO War the Pacific Bank and Tech Corps merged to accomplish stronger efficiency and communication between the two departments. The merger resulted in the creation of the Economic Affairs department on June 18, 2011.