Bank and Loans

Off-Shore Bank auctions with the cash and container bid tiles, paying the Bank, loans, interest and default.

The Off-Shore Bank

The Off-Shore Bank has three container lots (top) and three cash lots (bottom), numbered I to III. Whatever is paid to the Bank lands on these lots and is auctioned to the players again, so money and containers keep circulating. It starts with two random containers on lot I, one on lot II, and $1, $2, $3 on cash lots I, II, III (setup).

The Bank is not the cash supply: buildings and loans go to and come from the supply; interest, buyouts and Bank-auction payments go to the Bank. (pp. 6–7)

Bank auctions

Use a Call Bank action (once per turn) to do one of (p. 12):

• Start a new auction — if an auction token is free, put it on any lot, take that lot’s bid tile and put your opening bid on it.
• Bid in an active auction — outbid the player holding that lot’s bid tile; they take their bid back and you take the tile with your bid.

The opening bid must be at least $1 or one container.

Bidding cash for containers

A container lot is bought with cash, on the cash bid tile: put your bid face up on it. To outbid, offer at least $1 more. Cash on the tile is frozen — you can’t spend it for anything, not even interest. If someone outbids you, the cash returns to your hand.

Bidding containers for cash

A cash lot is bought with containers, on the container bid tile: place any mix of containers from your factory and harbor districts — factory ones on the right of the tile, harbor ones on the left — and mark each empty spot with a reserve token . Only the number of containers counts, not the colours; to outbid, offer at least one more. If you are outbid, your containers go back to their districts (reprice them as you like) and your reserve tokens go back to the supply. (pp. 12–13)

Reserve tokens and storage

While your containers sit on the container bid tile they still use storage in the district they came from: count your reserve tokens as containers when checking a storage limit. Example from the rulebook: Blue’s factory limit is 6; with 4 containers and 1 reserve token there, Blue can produce only 1 more.

How many auctions at once

Players	Active Bank auctions
3–4	One at a time, cash or container lot. The other bid tile stays unused until it ends.
5	One cash auction and one container auction at the same time. With none open, start either; with one open, bid in it or start the other type; with both open, bid in either.

You can still only Call Bank once per turn. (p. 14)

Winning a Bank auction

If you hold the high bid at the start of your turn (after paying interest), you win:

1. Pay the Bank — spread your bid over the Bank’s other lots ( cash bids over cash lots, container bids over container lots), as in Paying the Bank.
2. Collect — cash goes to your hand; containers go to your holding area on the Bank board, to be picked up by your ship.
3. Clean up — return the auction token, the bid tile and your reserve tokens to the supply.

You can’t Call Bank in the turn you win. A bid must survive a whole round: every new bid “restarts the clock”. (pp. 14–15)

Paying the Bank

Whenever the Bank receives cash or containers:

1. Starting with lot I and going left to right, place $1 or one container at a time on each lot.
2. After lot III, continue from lot I.
3. Skip any lot with an auction token on it — nothing can be added to a lot while it is being auctioned.

When you pay containers of several colours, you choose which goes where (except in a default). Make change first if needed.

Loans

The Bank lends $10 at a time, and you may have two loans at most. (pp. 16–17)

Requesting a loan

A free action at any time — even on other players’ turns and during a delivery auction. Take $10 from the supply (not the Bank board) and a loan card. With no loans you may take two in one go; with two you must repay one before borrowing again.

[More] With Player Loans, you must first let the other players offer you a loan — see Player Loans.

Paying interest

At the very start of your turn pay $1 per loan to the Bank, spread over its cash lots. If you can’t, you must immediately take another loan to pay; if you already have two, you default.

Repaying a loan

A free action on your own turn, any time after paying interest: pay $10 to the supply and return the card. You always repay the full $10. You may repay two loans in a turn and borrow again right after. You may not repay on other players’ turns, or on your turn after collecting cash in a delivery auction.

At the end of the game every open loan costs $11 (Final scoring).

Default

If you can’t pay interest on a loan, the Bank seizes one container per unpaid loan from the first of these places where you have one:

1. your scoring area on Container Island;
2. your ship;
3. your Bank holding area;
4. your harbor district;
5. your factory district.

When it must choose between containers in one place, the player on your right chooses, and also decides which colour goes on which lot as the seized containers are spread over the Bank’s container lots. You keep your loan cards and pay interest again next turn (or default again). If you have nothing the Bank can seize, your unpaid interest is forgiven for that turn only. (p. 17)