I'm not really liking the way its setup in the game currently. As far as I know, there's no global central bank that dictates bank interest across the world. I could be wrong on this, but I don't think I am.
You can't apply the same loan interest rate across all countries (citys), as some countries (citys) will be doing far better than others. If it is that the central bank is say HSBC ( Private bank ) then fine. But Central banks are ran by governments to stimulate the economy or to increase savings if spending is out of hand. Countries like the BRICS are encourage savings, whilst the US is trying to encourage spending for example.
Banks
The problem with this system is, that you couldn't have banks to buy for example, as banks lend to each other, and that can only happen if governments lend money cheaper ie UK government are lending at 2.5% and banks charge us at least 6.5%. The other way, is for banks in the BRICS to lend to EU banks for example at better rates than other EU banks ect. So if you can't have interbank lending then, it's not really a bank as such. Yes you can have stacks of cash, and can lend that, but then your more an investment or loan company than say a bank. As banks other purposes are to store money and pay you interest on that money.
The other point on bank lending is credit ratings, There isn't away, as far as I can see in the current game, that allows for this. For example some companies may get some of there debt / loan reduced to more favourable interest rates or half of the debt is just wiped away. When banks do this it usually damages your credit rating, so the next time you want to borrow money it's a lot higher than the normal rate or they may not borrow at all. This is where the idea of investment banks could come in as you could if you wish either buy shares in that corp or loan to the corp when no one else will at higher rates than the bank.
I have found another problem with the lending rates, and again this isn't a huge problem but for example. In the UK you can borrow at a fixed rate ie 6.5% if the interest goes up at the bank assuming on your agreement which is usually fixed your loan rate wont change. In the current game that i'm playing I borrowed at 7.5% and now it's 10.5%. In between this time I borrowed at 3% when the rates crashed and I should of in real life been able to pay off the initial 7.5% loan and then just had a 3 % loan of the same amount. This would also allow for bank ownership as there are different banks at different rates. What happens in the game is that your interest rates drop and increase without you been able to do much in controlling them. Again i'm not apposed to the way the system works and i'm playing at 206% difficulty but it dosen't represent the real world.
Idea's
Change the Central bank to a corporate bank, then the rate can apply how it wishes across the globe and the banks in the game could then be options to buy and allow for different interest rates set by the player in the country that your in. IE If the country was in recession you could lower interest if you wished as it's only corps that borrow the money in the game. The central bank could be accessed via an icon and you could borrow of them direct if there cheaper than the investment or public banks. If your ratings poor with the central bank, then you would be subject to the players banks.
Another idea is that You could possibly and maybe the current coding may need a tweak, have banks privately owned and investment banks been publicly owned. You could then borrow off the bank and the central bank rates could apply to the bank, and then you could change the interest by yourself for the investment bank. IE Bank lends at 5% set by the central bank then the Investment bank can borrow at that rate, but then charge it's own rate say 7.5% to other corps. But also you would be in competition with the banks and you could lend at a lower rate if you didn't borrow IE you have billions of your own money and you could lend that at say 5% as you'd still make money. It gets around my points of a banks purpose and still allows for purchasing of banks in some form. I know that the Quatar royal family have an investment bank that invests around the world in private companies.
This brings me onto the purpose of the investment bank in the game. They currently lend money and allow you to issue shares which is fine. But I would like to see them, (if it is that the above wasn't introduced) acting as an investment bank. IE the investment banks could buy shares in the stock market. for example the Chinese government have an investment company that invest in foreign companies, which is also another way of them lending money to companies directly. It also helps ailing companies, where there credit rating isn't very good.
At the moment CAPLAB works very well. for example when in recession it lowers the interest rate and increase when it's doing well. Which is my point above about central banks.
I'm not apposed to the way the system works, just it should allow for country variations. So if I have a corp HQ in the UK for example i'm fixed to the interest by that country, If you made the corp HQ fixed to a country till say they don't have a loan or a fixed period in time ie 20 years then you can control the loans that they borrow. Ie if my corp HQ moved from the UK after all loans were paid for example, I could then move to a country that has a better loan rate and also a better interest rate for my cash.
It's going to be very clever coding if banks and the other stuff I mentioned above were incorporated into the game. Although Trevor Chan and his boys, are the boys that could do it. I guess my ideas and comments are more simulator than game, and it's really whether they want Capitalism as a game or a simulator.
I would love to know your feelings on this, perhaps i'm wrong or perhaps theres other ways. Either way i'd love to know your views. Right, back to beta testing
