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And yet now, it seemed like the Bank itself might become another avenue through which foreign money might arrive in Atreya.

That was a big point of concern for him--and for Madame Carthrace, though she seemed to think that there were preventative measures that could be taken.

Hector still felt quite a bit out of his depth on this one. But if it really was true that expansion into Lorent could be conducted safely, then... well, that was a lot of money on the table.

Moreover, he'd been learning in his conversations with Amelia that, while the Bank was doing well in terms of both customer growth and stabilization of the national economy, the Bank itself still wasn't making much of a profit yet.

Part of the problem, she said, were old governmental regulations that were specifically designed to limit the growth of banks. There were several she'd mentioned, but the one she took particular issue with was the law that forced newly formed banks to keep up to two hundred thousand troa in "reserve" for every customer they took on.

According to Amelia, the reason this was such a problem was because "reserve," in this case, was a legally binding term that meant the Bank could not invest that money into anything else--which severely limited the profitability of their entire operation. Therefore, the only way to recoup their costs was to burden their customers with some rather hefty service fees.

Right now, because of all the uncertainty in the economy and abroad, their customers were putting up with it--presumably for the sense of security that the Bank provided--but Amelia believed that it was only a matter of time before this began to threaten the Bank more dramatically.

For a while now, she had been trying to convince the Queen to repeal some of these regulations. In the beginning, she had thought that it wouldn't be an issue, due to their good relationship with her and the rather extreme state of financial affairs facing the nation.

But apparently, it was an issue.