Banking in the Mutul

OTM Plaza, a high-rise building complex in K'alak Muul where the Bank of Ox Te Muul has its headquarter

In the Mutul, banks are governed by the Mutulese Central Bank, established in its modern form in 1901. Historically, banks in the Mutul were divided in two system : a western "bloc" that operated mostly in businesses related to Ochraneses and Vespanians matters and an eastern bloc that lagged behind for most of its history, overshadowed in the Thalassians by the Latin, Arthuristans, and Rezeses. Since the great crisis of the start of the 19th century and the following century-long restructuration effort from the Divine Throne, the gap between these two blocs has dissapeared, but still has consequences, both economically and culturally.

There are more than sixty banks registered across the Mutul, with a further three being state owned. In total, they have a combined assets of 2.466 trillion solidus as of June 2019.

The "Big Four" commercial banks of the Mutul are the West Maritime Bank, the Green Society, the Kanul-Ho Bank, and the Bank of Ox Te Muul. Together, they held in the past three decades around 68.2 percents of all banking assets.

History

A Mutulese fort in the Vespanian Ocean

The growing involvment of the Mutul with the international capital market was mediated by an early form of merchant banks. These grew out of merchant "administrative communities" (the "Nuk Nahob") that shifted their capital first from financing their own trade and inventories to acceptance credit and later branched out into various financial services in the Mutuleses markets.

Since the invention of the printing press, the Divine Throne slowly moved away from using commodities such as jade or copper for its exchanges, and adopted paper money. It also developed bonds as a form of debt recognition to raise new capitals for the construction of new infrastructure, the modernisation of its military, and also new military campaigns both in Ochran and Norumbia. These bonds were sold in marketplaces by government officials, jointly traded with the shares of various enterprises and corporations, a practice introduced by the Nuk Nahob operating in Ochran who where always in dire need of new capitals. As a result, many markets in the Mutul turned into early stock exchanges, separated from other market places. The Blessed Printmaker House was the first institution that performed tasks similar to that of a modern central bank, under the control of the Treasury.

Display at the K'alak Muul Museum of Arts and History of 16th century Mutuleses printed bonds

After the Mutulo-Reze Wars and the Noble Rebellion in Sante Reze, merchants in the east coast, who were generally considered to be lagging behind their Tatinak, Teenek, and Yokot'an counterparts, enjoyed new opportunities offered by the fall of the Reze Trade Cartel. Under the guarantee of a newfound friendship between the Divine Throne and the Noble Republic, they started to invest in the reconstruction of Sante Reze after its takeover by the Noble Houses, with specialists brokers serving as middlemen : floating the bonds on behalf of the Noble Republic, and later also for other governments such as Ayeli or Caripe, and create a market for those bonds. These markets would remain active until the Sajal War of the 1820s and the ensuing crisis.

In 1750, the creation of the First Tsurushimese Republic sparkled an economic crisis in the Divine Kingdom's Vespanian possessions that had profound effects even in Oxidentale. It made investors feel that these far-away regions had become "too risky" and shied away from them. This distrust would only b further confirmed with the Second Kahei War of the 1810s, where the Mutulese throne even encouraged investors to liquidate all the assests they could from the region, with few exceptions like Benaajab. It's only with the end of the Sajal War and new technological innovations that some investors would return to the Vespanian, but no longer in a dominant position except in, once again, Benaajab, until the last decade of the 19th century when the Second Bandhaśēka and the collaboration of the Mutul in the nationalisation of foreign assets operated by the Daitoa Republic marked the end of that era.

Modern times

Wilijaj Chan K'awiil reign

The city of Yu was the main hub of Mutuleses trades with Ochran

During the rule of Walijaj Chan K'awiil II, the Mutul had already started an heavy restructuration and modernisation of its financial institutions and system, alongside that of the rest of its society. Foreign banks, the Reze were favored but it also included Arthuristans and Latins institutions, started to open branch in the Mutul, while the Divine Throne took a more direct approach to the country's third sector, favorizing the creation of the Green Society from the reunion of local mutual farming banks or even founding new state-owned banks such as the Industry and Infrastructure Bank. These always had specific goals such as to promote lending to small family farms in the former example, or to facilitate the modernisation of the Mutul infrastructures and factories for the latter.

Early 20th Century

With the nationalization operated by the the Daitoa Republic, assests still in the Vespanian Ocean and Ochran returned to the Mutul. There, the ongoing "Arm Race" between Belfras and the Divine Kingdom led to further demands from the state for funds to continue to improve it's military and infrastructure in case of a war with its northern rival. The Belfro-Mutulese war of 1911 proved to be a risk, but the post-war reconstruction brought new opportunities, and so did the following Condozi War. It's during that period, to trind and recover some of their strength that had been depleted by the end of the Mutulese presence in Ochran, many Takinak and other western Nuk Nahob fused into the Western Maritime Bank. It was also a period of emergence, or rather of re-emergence of private banking, with the enterprises owned by aristocratic families modernizing, allying, and sometime merging to form new, modern, banks.