Midas Bank

Midas Bank is a mysterious, secretive and seemingly otherworldly organization, or force, behind The Financial District and Midas Money.

History
Not much is known about the origins of the Midas Bank, but it is implied that it has existed for a very long time (possibly for as long as money has been around) and will continue to exist as long as there are people on the planet with a future to take. The Bank is a global organization and it appears that every country has its own Financial District.

Management
The Bank seems to be led by a mysterious being known tentatively as "Midas", who prefers to remain unseen (he appears in the anime only once). Most of the work is accomplished by Bank representatives who all appear to be multicolored versions of the same being. The Japanese representative is known as Masakaki. The names of the others are unknown, but most fans seem to simply call them "Masakakis".

Workings
According to Masakaki, the Bank selects people to become Entrepreneurs (abbreviated as Entres) at random. Upon selection, a representative of the Bank is sent to meet the prospective Entre with the details of the agreement. Midas Bank representatives go to great lengths to lure in the Entres and seem to know a lot more than they should know (for instance, Masakaki was able to tell Kimimaro that Hanabi's suitor is a spoiled rich kid). If the prospective Entre still refuses, the Bank may use trickery to rope him/her in.

Midas Bank issues Midas Money, black banknotes that appear normal to non-Entres. Upon concluding an agreement with an Entre, the Bank places a hefty initial deposit of Midas Money into his/her account and hold his/her future as collateral. From this moment, an Entre is forever bound to the Bank until he/she goes "bankrupt".

Entres must participate in weekly "Deals", aka duels with other Entres using "Assets", aka summoned familiars representing their Entre's future... somehow. Assets are summoned and controlled using a Midas Card. Money acts as both an Entre's "health" and "mana bar", with powerful attacks requiring a money investment, which means that the richest Entres (like Mikuni) are usually the strongest. Deals take place in The Financial District, an alternate dimension controlled by the Bank. An Entre can bail out of a Deal by sacrificing half of his personal fortune.

The winner of a Deal receives money (proportional to the amount of damage inflicted upon the opponent). As for the loser, the Bank repossesses part of his/her future, which vanishes from the real world as if it had never existed. Depending on the gravity of the loss, this can mean anything from failing a class (like Kimimaro does after an insignificant loss) to losing wives or children. If an Entre takes too much damage, he/she is "bankrupted", loses his/her entire future and is banished from the Financial District forever.

Important impacts of the Bank
The Bank's future-repossessing policies can have a disastrous effect on the economy, as they may lead to the failure of important companies on which a nation's economy rests. In addition, heavy injection of Midas Money into an economy can lead to inflation.

If a country's Financial District goes bankrupt, Midas Bank repossesses the entire country, which disappears from existance. This triggers the chain reaction known as C.

In addition, a high-level Entre (like Mikuni) in possession of a Darkness-level Midas Card can action the Rotary Press of the Financial District (which is actually a tentacled abomination) to create massive amounts of Midas Money, but at the cost of numerous years of his own future (and the country's).

Trivia

 * Midas Bank is named after King Midas, who according to legend asked the Gods for the power to turn everything he touched into gold. This proved to be a bad idea as everything he tried to eat also turned to gold, forcing him to forsake the power.
 * The otherworldly, inhuman feel of the Midas Bank and its practices is similar to H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos and its abominations, particularly with the C phenomenon's tentacled aesthetics. This possibly represents the degree to which the intricate webs of capital, shareholders, and automated trading, with their detailed and occasionally arcane lingo, might seem to be a vast and unknowable force to the layperson. This is particularly represented with the effects of the Rotary Press and C, in which the failure of the financial district may cause massive problems and deaths on a massive scale, despite most not even noticing its pervasive influence on their lives.