Banks in a warped Economic Standard Model

We present an axiomatic definition of banks as composite agents within the warped Economic Standard Model (ESM), a quantum field theory of economic interactions on a five-dimensional manifold with gauge symmetries U (1) (money), SU (3) (functional roles of subjects) and SU (2) (credit/debt). After identifying masses with institutional inertia (while the amount of capital is given by the coherent-state amplitude) and introducing a Kaluza-Klein decomposition of the U (1) field in the warped dimension, we show that the massless zero mode corresponds to liquidity and the massive first mode to equity; higher modes represent additional capital tiers. The crucial feature of money creation is modelled microscopically as q q → W + W -→ γγ, with the colour structure of the bank entering only in the annihilation step, thus modifying efficiency for specialised banks. Four core axioms define a bank (state space, bound state of roles, money creation, coherent double-entry accounting), allowing us to distinguish commercial from investment banks and diversified from specialised institutions. The framework yields a natural hierarchy between liquidity (massless, dissipative) and equity (massive, superfluid condensate), and provides a rigorous foundation e.g. for interbank lending, systemic risk, and monetary policy.