With all the hype surrounding the first episode of this season’s Game of Thrones, I figured it was time to dispel the rumors: Lake Whillans is NOT the Iron Bank. While both entities can be a great resource in your campaign to vanquish an opponent, there remain a couple key differences.
First off, the Iron Bank is a bank in the Free City of Braavos. It is the most powerful financial institution in the Known World, funding wars across Essos and Westeros, including the government of the King of the Andals and Tywin Lannister.
Lake Whillans is a litigation finance company in Manhattan, and we typically invest with companies that need capital for operations and legal fees and expenses, not wars. Also, we would have never invested in Tywin Lannister, we root for the House of Stark (and sometimes Tyrion).
Second, I’m not sure the Iron Bank has a non-recourse option (otherwise, maybe Tywin should have used it):
“One stone crumbles and another takes its place and the temple holds its form for a thousand years or more. And that’s what the Iron Bank is, a temple. We all live in its shadow and almost none of us know it. You can’t run from them, you can’t cheat them, you can’t sway them with excuses. If you owe them money and you don’t want to crumble yourself, you pay it back.”
―Tywin Lannister
Lake Whillans, on the other hand, offers non-recourse capital for companies in litigation or arbitration. If they lose their campaign, they owe us nothing.
Lastly, the investment committee at the Iron Bank seems awfully concerned with funding the likely victors in the battle for the throne, and a lot less concerned about funding its rightful heir. At Lake Whillans, we too fund the likely victors, but only if they are also the party with equities on their side.
I hope this helps clear up any confusion that there may have been. Looking forward to episode two.