How to build a bank in Civilization 7

Building a bank in Civilization 7 is a good way to earn a little extra gold in your cities. You might also get “build a bank” as an optional, narrative objective as part of the “Precious Metals” quest over the course of your game — especially if you’re pursuing an Economic Legacy Path.

Our Civilization 7 guide will tell you what you need to research to unlock banks and the requirements for how to build a bank.

How to unlock banks in Civilization 7

Banks are an Exploration Age building, so you’ll have to advance out of the Antiquity Age before they’ll even become an option.

Banks are unlocked by researching Urban Planning in the Exploration Age Tech tree. You’ll find it almost all the way to the right, just before Future Tech. That means you’ll need to research almost the entire tree before you can start building banks. At minimum, you’ll need to research Astronomy, Cartography, Heraldry, Feudalism, Guilds, Shipbuilding, Education, and Architecture first.

How to build a bank in Civilization 7

Banks can only be built in cities, not in towns. They require quite a bit of production to get built — somewhere around 250 to 260 Production, depending on how your town and civilization’s Happiness figures in. Once built, it’ll start generating a base of at least +5 gold per turn with additional gold available based on location and neighboring tiles.

Upkeep and maintenance on the bank will cost 3 Happiness per turn from your town.

For more Civilization 7 guides, here’s how to increase your Production, Happiness, and Food yields, plus a list of all yields and how they work.