Hugh,
What JM is describing is a Pawn Shop. I owned and operated one for five years. A pawn shop is the “Bank” for the 20 percent (maybe more now) people in the lowest economic strata.
The description of the building and accoutrements to do business as JM sees it will not be cheap to acquire, so if your plan is “You won’t be able to act as our current-day, money-grubbing, greedy banksters do.” You might not be able to stay in the business of helping people.
Pawn shops in Idaho, Texas, Florida, and some other states allow interest of 240 percent. In California pawn loans above $2500.00 rates are negotiable. I operated in California and charging the max rate at the time, which amounted to 100 percent per year average and with $150,000 in loans it was difficult to make a profit.
I do not think the current banks loaning money at current rates are the “banksters” in my opinion. It is the traders that are causing the image. I currently have business bank loans at five percent, and I don’t think my banker is a “bankster”.
I encourage you to work up a business Proforma and see what expenses you will be up against and then determine how much you should charge for your service. Of course, you might want to be 100 percent charitable during the TEOTWAWKI situation that you envision and then it will not matter what you earn from your efforts.
I just wanted to point out my experience with being the bank. It might take a little re-engineering to get to the goal of being the bank during very difficult times. – B.F.