CenBank

CenBank is an international institution which manages the global currency network, money supply, interest rates, and currency exchange rates. The head offices are located in the European Community, floating over Lake Geneva.

Establishment
Each of the five major Economic Combines of the 22nd Century has its own currency, and years ago they set up CenBank to act as a clearinghouse for all economic transactions between the powers, and as arbiter of economic disputes.

The primary founder of CenBank was Justine Thyme.

Over the years, CenBank has spread its tentacles and attempted to insinuate into the internal finances of each of the Combines, bidding to take responsibility for the money supply, interest rates, credit records, and so on. Through this gradual process, CenBank has accrued varying degrees of influence within each Combine. But it wants more: it wants to be the sixth Economic Combine – and the most powerful. The tail yearns to wag the dog.



Governance
CenBank was managed by a Board of Directors, led by the Chairman and Director, Barton Poole. However, the Board did not seem to be completely in control: decisions were made and plans were executed without their authorisation. It was later discovererd that Barton Poole was actually a hologram and that the bank was in fact being run by an Artificial Intelligence (AI) program nestled in the heart of the huge computer.

Services
One of the ongoing projects of CenBank is to completely centralise individual credit within each of the Combines. To attain this goal, it introduced the Credit Chip, a microchip implanted in the fifth digit which is electonically linked to an individual's CenBank credit account. When goods or services are purchased, an individual inserts his or her pinky into a slot and the price of the purchase is withdrawn immediately from their account and transferred to the seller's. The Credit Chip has caught on, but it has serious consequences in regard to privacy: CenBank can track every purchase made and opponents claim that this information is then sold back to participating governments and their intelligence agencies.

The idea of the Credit Chip has been taken to its extreme with the development of the Identity Chip. In September 2142, at CenBank's instigation, Identity Chips became mandatory for all citizens in the NAU.

Opposition
They may not admit so openly, but world leaders are wary of CenBank and continue to keep a close watch on its activities. The introduction of the Credit Chip has been moderately successful in the Asian Prosperity Sphere and the Hispanic Commonwealth, but has met with stiff resistance in the European Community and the North American Union.

In the NAU, the Privacy Party has declared itself anti-CenBank, but there is also an underground opposition movement known as "R". The radical privatists want CenBank dismantled and do not hesitate to resort to violent means – sabotage and even terrorism – to make their point and draw attention to the potential abuses of CenBank's growing data cache.