Stallion Bank of Volaenis

The Stallion Bank of Volaenis is a bank in the City of Valer Sorth. It is arguably the most powerful financial institution in the Known World, with clients Across the Sea and all over Trost, including the government of the King who rules over Trost.

History and Governance
The Bank was founded by twenty three Volaenish: sixteen men and seven women, each of whom owned a key to the bank's great subterranean vaults. Their descendants, now numbering more than one thousand, are known as "keyholders" and proudly display their keys on formal occasions, though these keys are entirely ceremonial. Certain of these founding families have declined, with some losing their wealth entirely, yet all of them they cling to their keys and the honors that go along with them.

However, the Bank is not ruled by the keyholders alone. Some of the wealthiest and most powerful Volaenish families of today are rather younger, yet their heads own shares in the bank, sit on its secret councils, and have a voice in selecting the men who lead it.