Most of our virtual world coverage at Massively is focused on Second Life, but we're still keeping an eye on what's happening beyond the walls of Linden Lab. One significant development revealed this past week is that Entropia Universe will be the first virtual world to have a bank that's actually backed and regulated by a real-world government, called Mind Bank AB.
We received word on this from MindArk's PR: "The Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority (Finansinspektionen) has granted a license to conduct banking activities to virtual universe developer MindArk PE AB's wholly owned subsidiary Mind Bank AB. The unique step of integrating MindArk's virtual universe Entropia Universe with the real world will allow Mind Bank AB to function as a central bank for all virtual worlds within the Entropia Universe."
So Mind Bank AB will be an actual bank with a virtual presence in Entropia Universe. Writing for Ars Technica, Michael Thompson reports additional details on Mind Bank AB. "It will be backed by Sweden's $60,000 deposit insurance, offer interest-bearing accounts for its clients, feature direct deposit options, let players pay bills online, and apparently will offer loans to customers." Interesting times, indeed.
[Via Raph's Website]
