The Federal Bank is an autonomous federal organisation with the following missions:
- Control the Oceanykan pound's (OZP) market supply.
- Safeguard the Federation's gold reserves and exchange them for Oceanykan pounds.
- Maintain stable exchange rates between the nation's various local currencies.
- Loan money towards persons, corporations and institutions, most importantly to the Government itself.
- Manipulate the market's interest rates by lending money or borrowing from trustworthy private banks.
- Compile and publish credit ratings of persons, institutions, corporations and even banks within the Oceanykan Federation.
- Hunt down counterfeit operations both in national terrain and abroad.
Most of these missions are accomplished by the Federal Bank's own internal organisms, but it does possess one intelligence agency: the Anti-Counterfeiting Service. Its head is the Governor of the Federal Bank, aided in their functions by a sizeable number of assistant-governors and secretaries.
For all intents and purposes, the Federal Bank is the Oceanykan Federation's central bank, holding supreme authority over monetary policy. One of its most direct methods is controlling the supply of money by choosing how much to mint. Though traditionally understood to mean minting coins, the term is increasingly complex: most minting the Federal Bank does is actually by issuing banknotes, though electronic banking is said to become a major form of operating in the near future, and the Federal Bank has begun experimenting with electronic minting. Since the 1899 Decimalisation Act, the following coins and banknotes are produced:
- Pence - 1/100 of a Pound.
- On the reverse, a seagull.
- Hand - 5/100 of a Pound.
- On the reverse, a hand playing "five finger fillet".
- Shilling - 10/100 of a Pound.
- On the reverse, two crossed Lee-Enfield rifles.
- Crown - 25/100 of a Pound.
- On the reverse, a guillotine.
- Kolat - 50/100 of a Pound.
- On the reverse, a koala.
- Pound - Produced as both coin and notes.
- On the reverse, a red kangaroo.
- £5 - Produced as both coin and note.
- On the reverse, Ned Kelly's gang.
- £10 - Issued as note.
- On the reverse, HMS Conqueror, blown up outside Cestlep.
- £20 - Issued as note.
- On the reverse, the Oceanykan Constitution.
- £50 - Issued as note.
- On the reverse, two crossed Oceanykan flags.
All notes and coins contain their value in the front. Notes also include the seal of the Federal Bank, next to this value. For ease of calculation, £1 OZP is considered to be equal to $1 USD throughout the entirety of the mid-1960s.
The Federal Bank maintains the nation's gold reserves secure within its vault, hidden deep underground at Cestlep's city centre. Despite its remarkable security, perhaps the best of any government facility in the continent, this has not discouraged dozens of bank heist attempts, almost all resulting in failure. Furthermore, said institution keeps track of Oceanyka's 23 local currencies and publishes weekly exchange rates between them and the Oceanykan Pound, based on information collected by the Department of Commerce's Economic Intelligence Unit. The three most stable local currencies are the Sydney Sterling Pound, the Syndical Dollar and the Farenday Silver Peso. It also does regular fractional-reserve banking, lending money to an array of persons, corporations and institutions at competitive prices; its internal bank reserve requirements are understood to be a national indicator, and most larger private banks follow suit, as it can affect their credit rating. This is information that the Federal Bank compiles about the financial behaviour of all citizens, corporations and institutions that have ever borrowed money or that lend money throughout the country, both native and foreign. Borrower credit ratings represent how likely a person is to default on their loans, thus offering up their collateral (or simply to disappear and never pay!) For lenders, it represents the trustworthiness of their safekeeping from emergencies (bank runs, heists and fraud). Due to Oceanyka's uncertain nature, few loans are ever given out without a collateral. Popular choices in the contemporary age are organs and servitude terms. Most of these are signed through blood contract.
Much like through its reserve requirements, the Federal Bank does not wholly adjust marketwide interest rates directly (although its own interest rates are seen as a strong market indicator), but rather loans or borrows money or securities to and from large private banks to "sway" it towards their target rate, thus ensuring a degree of monetary stability (of the Oceanykan pound of course, other local currencies are the responsibility of the local powers that manage them). The Federal Bank's final mission is to conduct anti-countefeiting through its specialised law enforcement unit, the Anti-Counterfeiting Service. Although this agency has its own intelligence capabilities, it mostly operates by information collected by the Department of Commerce's Economic Intelligence Unit. Its only responsibility is towards the Oceanykan Pound, all other 23 local currencies must manage their own anti-counterfeiting operations, which can significantly affect their value and exchange rates.