[ETH] Call to the Federal Reserve System

[Naio90]

The Minister of Finance and Economic Development of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, Mr. Ahmed Shide, would request a private with Mr Avery Black, Vice Chair of The Board of Governors of The Federal Reserve System of the United States of America.

The subject of the call would be to inquire about the possibility of obtaining international funding to support the continued development of Ethiopia as well as to comply with international responsabilities.

Odinson

 

[Odinson]

Vice Chair Avery Black was inside of his office at the Marriner S. Eccles Federal Reserve Building when his phone began to ring. His secretary informed him that there was a call from the Minister of Finance of Ethiopia. Avery told his secretary to forward the call to his phone. He cleared his throat and waited for the other end of the line to connect.

"Good afternoon, this is Avery Black," he said from the secure line as he waited for a response.

Naio90

 

[Naio90]

With the private communication established, Ahmed Shide would be put through.

"Vice Chair Black, how are you? Thank you for accepting this call, I hope you are doing well. Let me start by extending to you greetings from Prime Minister Ahmed, who is personally interested in this call we are having today.

As you might we aware from the official request we submitted for this conference, we would like to discuss your organizations recent offer of international credit. We are currently having a lot of things going on here, key developments and programs advancing faster than expected and that require big investments in order to keep the momentum going. Initially we posponed you offer, considering that our financial recovery would be enough to cover the upcoming expenses. However, as said, everything is speeding up and we need to be ready to tackle all these financial challenges."​

Odinson

 

[Odinson]

"Minister Shide, it is wonderful to hear from you. Please give the Prime Minister the best regards from myself and the Board of Governors. I am very happy to hear that Ethiopia is potentially open to going forward with going into business with us. At this time, we can offer your government a $5-billion line of credit. If this sounds like something that your government would be interested in, I could have the specific options emailed over to your office so that you can review them," Avery said as he logged onto his computer and created a new file for the Ethiopian government.

Naio90

 

[Naio90]

"Rest assured I will relay your regards to him.

The mentioned amount falls within our expected request. However, before we go further into details, we were interested in inquiring about the possibility of having the option of deferred payments. We would basically request to delay the payment of the first quota, instead of initiating the pay back the immediate period following the acquisition of the credit.

As an incentive, and more context, the credit will be used to develop the newly acquired Port of Assab, essential to our economic development plan, the acquisition of the first batch of vessels for our merchant fleet and to incorporate military and logistic equipment to allow the current ethiopian armed forces of gain basic operational capacity.

Related to this last point, we would also be interested in having the US as one of our primary providers, meaning that part of the money that would be credited to us would be spent on US equipment, enriching your treasury, creating jobs for US citizens and giving profit to US companies.

Would something like this be acceptable for the Federal Reserve System?"

Odinson

 

[Odinson]

"Minister Shide, the Federal Reserve System is the Central Bank of the United States, however it is not part of the United States Government. We enjoy a significant amount of autonomy, and the Board of Governors does not play a part in diplomatic policy for the United States. I think you will see that our six-month line of credit already allows for a generous time between when the money is issued, and the first payment date. However, if your office would like to request a further extension, we can discuss that - it would just come at a premium. I will send an encrypted email to you now of what this kind of payment plan will look like so that you can evaluate it," he said.

He did, indeed, send a secure email that showed the following payment plan for $5-billion:

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OFFICE OF THE VICE CHAIR​

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SECURE​

TO: Ahmed Shide, Minister of Finance and Economic Development of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia ( Naio90 )​

FROM: Avery Black, Vice Chair of The Board of Governors of The Federal Reserve System

Minister Shide,

I am pleased to inform you that the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia has been formally approved for a $5,000,000,000.00 line of credit for [6 IRL] Months, with repayments of $1,029,166,666.67 per [IRL month]; the due date for each payment is the last day of [each RL month].

If your government misses a payment, then that individual payment of $1,029,166,666.67 will have a 20% penalty of $205,833,333.34 added to it, and it must be paid on the next payment date. Subsequent delinquencies will also incur a 20% penalty. Your government may issue payments early - before the payment dates - without any penalty. The [IRL] payment dates are below:

Payment 1: $1,029,166,666.67 on [May 31]
Payment 2: $1,029,166,666.67 on [June 30]
Payment 3: $1,029,166,666.67 on [July 31]
Payment 4: $1,029,166,666.67 on [August 31]
Payment 5: $1,029,166,666.67 on [September 30]
Payment 6: $1,029,166,666.67 on [October 31]

If your government agrees to these terms, please inform me, and we will initiate the wire transfer of $5,000,000,000.00 as soon as possible.

Best regards,

Avery Black
Vice Chair of The Federal Reserve System
​

​

​

 

[Naio90]

The Minister of finance would open his computer and log in into his secure and encrypted message system to check the information provided by the Federal Reserve System's Vice Chair. After some analysis and a quick consultation with some technical staff, the presented option would be approve.

"Mr Vice Chair, we have reviewed the submitted conditions and they are acceptable to us, including your proposed schedule of payment of 6 installments. Please send us over all documents you need us to sign to make this official."

Odinson

 

[Odinson]

"Minister Shide, I am happy to hear that the Ethiopian government wants to move forward with with the $5-billion line of credit. I will send over the documents for your office to sign and your government to approve. Once the documents are signed, the Federal Reserve System will transfer $5-billion to Ethiopia's Treasury. If you have any issues, or questions, or concerns, please feel free to contact my office or the other Board of Governors at any time," Black said. If there was nothing else to discuss he would hang up the phone and get the documents sent to to the Ethiopian Ministry of Finance and Economic Development, specifically the office of the Minister.

The documents that needed to be approved and signed were from the Federal Reserve and described exactly what was written in the message [Post 6] that was sent to Minister's office. The documents made it clear that both the Finance Minister and the head of government (Prime Minister) needed to sign the document.

Naio90

 

[Naio90]

The documents would be received at the ethiopian ministry of finances and economic development and after the standard legal review they would be submitted for signature by the Minister himself.

He sign on behalf of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, validating the agreed terms and keep a copy of the document at the Ministry, while forwarding a copy to the Treasury of the nation in order to announce the incoming funds, as well as for the to schedule the payments.

With all this done, the signed copy would be returned to the US Federal Reserve System over secure lines of communitation.

Odinson