"And about how long would it take to build?"

"A week?" he guesses.

"Very good to know, thank you."

And to Dross: "Is there a bank?"

"The Merchant's Guild takes deposits and gives loans, if that's what you mean?"

"Do they do insurance?"

"Insurance... as in... I don't know a meaning of 'insurance' which makes sense in that context."

"Like... if I say, I'm going to commission this building, but it would be ruinous if it burned down, they could say, we think the risk that your building will burn down is less than one percent per year, so if you agree to pay us one percent of the building's cost every year, then if it does burn down we'll pay the whole sum of rebuilding it right away."

"I've never heard of anything like that." Dross sounds confused. "Er, I know the city grants loans sometimes, and sometimes writes them off if something disastrous happens and they judge you're not at fault?"

Huh. It was always a highlight when the insurance adjuster and his escort party swung by #11. Y'all need Abadar. "It's a popular institution on Golarion."

"I guess if the Merchant's Guild does that with enough people than on average they make money and the risk evens out?" He shrugs. "Maybe you can suggest it to them."

"That's the idea, yes. But if they don't then I guess they don't. Where is it?"

Not far. Dross can take him.

Still open?

Yes! The entrance goes into a huge room, impressively gaudy and plush. It's pretty busy even at this hour, though not enough that there's not a [Receptionist] available to receive them after only a few minutes.

"Hello, I need to open an account."

It's a bored-looking Gnoll that greets them.

"Would you like a standard, joint, or business account?"

She'll also ask for a name, mailing address, and a minimum starting deposit of 10 gold.

He has 10 gold even after paying for Dross and the chamber; it leaves him short on walking-around money but he'll solve that in the morning. Can he receive mail at his inn for now? He has no idea how to transliterate his name into their language but can pronounce it for her a few times. And do they do insurance and just not advertise about it to the point that Dross knew?

She'll transliterate his name. He can receive mail at his inn, or he can get a mailbox at the Runner's Guild for two coppers a day; it's prepaid, minimum one silver for five days. The Merchant's Guild can set that up for him for free if he wants.

They don't do insurance. It takes a while for the [Receptionist] to remember, but she thinks she might have heard about a branch trying something like that in Zeres a few years ago? She doesn't know how it turned out, though.

He'll just receive mail at the inn for now, it's not obvious there's any advantage to the mailbox.

(The advantage is if you switch inns you don't have to contact all the places you provided your mailing address and possibly have them fail to update your entry and you lose your mail anyway!)

The [Receptionist] doesn't say that, though.

He now has an account containing ten gold. Does he need anything else?

He'd be curious if she can dig up any information on the insurance experiment and also would like to know how they assess loanworthiness.

"I just heard about it; I don't know where I'd start looking for that. One of the managers might know more." Her expression is doubtful. "Loanworthiness is judged based on monthly income, credit history with the Guild, place of origin, and estimation of the stability of the borrower's income, which is partially at the discretion of the [Analyst] and based on a lot of different factors."

(She doesn't say "you're not going to get a good loan because you're a human", but he's not going to get a good loan because he's a human.)

"Okay, thank you." Sounds like it might just take less time to save up for it conventionally. "Does the account bear interest?"

5% per annum, paid and compounded monthly.

Cool. He's done there, then, and can head back to his inn for the night.