Financiers
The Financiers are a Methodology of the Syndicate focused on business, trade, and making money. The Financiers deal primary with Entropy and Mind.
History
Unlike many other methodologies in the Syndicate, the Financiers have no long pedigree. Instead, they were formed from numerous smaller guilds within the High Guild in 1851, with the backing of Rathbone and Queen Victoria. The newly formed Financiers, under the leadership of Reginald Proctor, quickly became the leaders of the new Convention. Following Proctor's agenda of global free trade, the Financiers prospered and caused the British Empire, where most of them were centered, to prosper. Other nations, particularly those in the European periphery, suffered from the successes of Proctor's vision. Weathering financial crises, the Financiers managed to make their cut through two World Wars and eventually were one of the main proponents of the introduction of the Euro as a shared currency for the European Union. In 2006, the Financiers experienced their first great setback. The methodology blames a group of overambitious individuals under pressure from Chairmember Claire Dulac for the Great Recession and the loss of trust this meant for international banking. In their defense, the Financiers state growing costs in maintaining the projects of the Technocratic Union, while simultaneously blaming the Financiers involved.
Culture
The Financiers have propagated the "walled garden model" to describe their relation to the Masses. They provide the environment for those who are gifted to prosper, while making sure that the content is not harmful to the Consensus. Other Sleepers see the success of the products that pass and try to emulate it by creating their own content. Instead of focusing on wrongs or enlightenment or other things the Traditions preach, the Masses instead focus on success, which is rewarded with money, which in turn attracts even more attention. In this scheme, only a few can truly win, but those that do are truly among the elite. Contrary to what some Traditionalists, and even some Technocrats, claim, the Financiers do not "own" the global financial market. Instead, they act as consultants and position themselves at important junctures. They then attract people with lending advice and money and later collect their debts (sometimes with the aid of Enforcers). This demands of them to be communicative, keep in touch with several people in position of power, both from criminal and legal enterprises, and show great flexibility and charisma when dealing with them. The Financiers are deeply invested in the World Trade Organization, World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and similar organizations. As such, they are very protective of them and, before the Anomaly disrupted several of their influences, worked to keep them mostly free from scrutiny. In the wake of the protests following the Great Recession, the Financiers secretly arranged for the creation of the Domestic Security Alliance Council, a body of guerrilla defense and counterintelligence for major banks.
Structure
Acquisition Division: Acquisition is focused on multiplying the profits of the Convention. For this reason, they seed corporations and hedge funds with their own un-Enlightened members, while acting as go-between groups for several projects. Entrepreneurship Division: Entrepreneurship focuses on founding businesses that work in the interest of the Syndicate. Often, various Syndicate fronts work together under their guidance to ensure that a business is quickly assembled, regardless of how long it is expected to last.
Liquidation Division: Liquidation focuses on extracting value from a business that is deemed no longer profitable. Talented people are relocated, while the location is re-purposed or sold.
