Gringotts is the only magical bank in the wizarding world, run by goblins and employing humans. It stores treasure and provides currency exchange. The bank is highly secure, with unknown security measures and rumored trolls and dragons guarding high-security vaults. Harry stores money in Vault 687 and the Philosopher’s Stone was stored in Vault 713. Several human characters work for Gringotts, including Bill Weasley and Fleur Delacour. Gringotts likely handles finances for both dark wizards and law-abiding ones.
In the Harry Potter books, Gringotts is the magical bank run by goblins, although it also employs humans. Gringotts appears to be the only bank in the wizarding world, and only one branch, located in Diagon Alley, is discussed in the books. Gringotts works much like safe deposit boxes do in muggle banks: depositors can take the material to the bank for storage, where it will be guarded by various measures. When someone wishes to remove items from the bank, he provides the bank with a key and is taken to the vault in question. Gringotts also provides currency exchange between Muggle (non-magical) and magical currency.
Gringotts is described as a multi-story white building with underground vaults that extend to an unknown depth underground. The amount of treasure kept in Gringotts is unknown, and exact information about the security measures used at the bank is also rare, although there are rumors of trolls and dragons being used to protect the high-security vaults. In the books, there are two different methods of accessing a vault: using a key or a Gringotts goblin’s fingernail, which apparently can be used to unlock certain vaults.
According to Rowling, goblins are very greedy creatures who look after their treasure well. Gringotts is seen as a highly reliable and secure place to store important material: the only safer place, according to Rubeus Hagrid, one of the adult characters, is Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, which has numerous magical safeguards of its own. Gringotts goblins are described as unattractive to look at, as they are short and wizened with hooked noses, but highly intelligent. Being bankers, they have a good head for numbers.
Harry stores money in Vault 687. During the first book, Harry and Hagrid enter Diagon Alley to get school supplies for Harry, and Hagrid removes something from Vault 713, which is later revealed to be the Philosopher’s Stone. The decision to move the Philosopher’s Stone proves to be valid: shortly after, vault 713 is violated, the first burglary recorded in the history of Gringotts.
Several human characters in the book work for Gringotts. Bill Weasley, older brother of Harry’s close friend Ron Weasley, is employed by the bank as a curse breaker in Egypt, allegedly salvaging artifacts from Egyptian tombs. Fleur Delacour, a French witch introduced in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire gets a job with Gringotts in England to improve her English skills. Clearly, Gringotts operates on an international basis and likely handles the finances for dark wizards and law-abiding ones. This could prove to be important in the final book.
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