444.07 // Bank Collapse on Axxila Prompts Economic Panic
At 0900 Galactic Standard Time, D’Astan Legacy Bank, a private banking company based out of Axxila and the largest bank on both the Ecumenopolis and sector at large, abruptly filed for bankruptcy and closed their doors. Holding over a trillion credits in loans, investments, and private deposits, beings from over a dozen sectors across the Galactic Northeast of Republic space have spiraled into an economic panic not seen since the stock market crash in 378 that prompted the onset of civil war on Vohai.
The bank’s CEO publicly cited that strains in the last cycles, caused by the Republic’s Embargo on worlds inside the Third Estate, were exacerbated by the Third Estate’s annexation of Pho Ph’eah, constricting trade along the Hydian Way to the Corporate Sector worlds dramatically. This instability has had major ripple effects through the private sector in the northeast of Republic space, destabilizing trade routes that have flowed unimpeded for centuries. Due to this, over the last cycle many corporations have had to default on loans through D’Astan Legacy Bank, leading to a dramatic deficit within the bank internally. Without enough liquidity to honor the value of credits inside the savings accounts of members, the bank was forced to close its doors.
This has caused a ripple effect through other banks and industries as investors into private corporations across the northeast have pulled out their capital, leading to other local and sector-wide banks to feel destabilized as stock values of these hundreds of industries across over a dozen sectors have plummeted including Thesme, Quelii, Sprizen, Belsmuth, and Corosi among others. In order to contain the spread of economic instability outside of the local regions, Chancellor Naka Rei’s administration has called the general Senate into an emergency meeting to expedite a swift response. He gave this declaration from the Chancellor’s desk as the Senate convened,
“We understand the anxiety that this crisis has caused not only for businesses but also for private citizens who are facing losing not only their life savings they had in D’Astan Legacy Bank, but also facing unemployment as businesses are forced to make difficult financial decisions to stay afloat while we look not to the days and months ahead, but simply the hours.
“I am calling the Senate into an emergency session to authorize a three rotation bank holiday, closing down the banks in the affected sectors to allow time for the situation to stabilize without threatening further bank closures. Additionally, I’m going to ask the Senate to institute a holiday for the Galactic Republic Stock Exchange for the next 3 rotations for the same reason.
“My administration, and the Senate at large, understand the desire of the people of the Republic to pull their finances out of the marketplace to ensure they keep their financial security. But, to preserve the economic security for the whole, and to protect the futures of countless of our fellow Republicans, we need to take control of this situation to ensure that this fraying situation does not tear a wider hole into our financial sectors. Thank you.”
As we report this, the Senate has voted to authorize both moves, freezing the entire Republic economy while the Senate deliberates how to address the crisis to allow banks, businesses, and the stock market to reopen next week in a place of stability rather than panic and chaos. The beings of the Republic’s northeast wait with baited breath as they wait to hear if they continue to have their money, or if their savings deposits and investments are lost forever.
Reporting from Coruscant, this is Quan Regal of the Associated Presses.