Gringotts Wizarding Bank

Gringotts Wizarding Bank is a prominent bank of the wizarding world, and is owned and operated by goblins. Its main offices are located at 100, North Side, Diagon Alley in London, England. In addition to storing money and valuables for wizards and witches, one can go there to exchange Muggle money for wizarding money. The currency exchanged by Muggles is later returned to circulation in the Muggle world by goblins.

NOTE: Absit Omen has deviated from canon to avoid harmful stereotypes of Jewish people. Plot discussion

History

The bank was created by the goblin Gringott in 1474. World events of the 1470s during a time of great change in the European magical economy.

The Ministry of Magic controls financial policy for the British Magical World. That office is on Level One. Gringotts operates independently as all other magical banks, but is subject to Ministry financial policy.

Services

Gringotts is a large full-service banking institution. It is most famous for its heavily-guarded subterranean vaults where many British goblins, wix, and other beings have stored their valuables for generations.

In addition to the typical banking products, Gringotts also employs several arithmancers, cursebreakers, translators, and diviners.

Staff

Gringotts employs anyone, regardless of species, who passes muster. In fact, the goblins of Gringotts having endured centuries of oppression by witches and wizards are uniquely welcoming to beings who would otherwise face employment discrimination like vampires, werewolves, centaurs, and free house elves. Squib humans are also employed here.

As a result of oppression by wix, employment opportunities have been historically limited leaving Gringotts as a primary employer for centuries. For this reason, goblins make up about 60% of the staff. Goblin culture prepares goblins very well for careers in finance due to a focus on mathematics and multi-lingualism.

• Personnel

Description

The façade of Gringotts as seen from Diagon Alley.

Gringotts is an imposing snow-white multistoried marble building located partway down Diagon Alley, near its intersection with Knockturn Alley, that towers over the neighboring shops.

Inside Gringotts Bank

From Diagon Alley, a set of white stairs leads up to a set of burnished bronze doors. The doors are flanked by a guards in a uniform of scarlet and gold. This is the entrance to Gringotts, and it leads into a small entrance hall and another set of doors. Engraved on these silver doors are the words:

Enter, stranger, but take heed

Of what awaits the sin of greed

For those who take, but do not earn,

Must pay most dearly in their turn.

So if you seek beneath our floors

A treasure that was never yours,

Thief, you have been warned, beware

Of finding more than treasure there.

Through these doors, also flanked by guards, is a vast marble hall long with counters stretching along its length. There are dozens of teller windows to serve the daily needs of its patrons.

In contrast to the grand marble of the entryway and the main hall, the passageways to the vaults are stone and dimly lit with flaming torches. They slope down to a track, upon which run small magical carts. These carts take visitors deep beneath the surface of the earth, through a "maze of twisting passages," to the vaults.

The vaults themselves vary in size and security. The largest, most well-protected vaults belong to the oldest wizarding families and lie deepest beneath the surface. Those vaults closer to the surface seem to be smaller and have fewer security precautions surrounding them - they use keys, for example, rather than requiring the touch of a staff member to gain access.

Security

Gringotts uses a variety of security systems. Most lower security vaults require a key; higher security vaults require the touch of a certified Gringotts staff. Higher security vaults may have various enchantments upon the doors.

Dragons or sphinxes guard the highest security vaults. Another security measure is the Thief's Downfall: a charmed waterfall that the goblin carts must pass through, it cancels all enchantments and magical concealments, and throws the carts off their tracks. Some vaults use the Gemino and Flagrante charms; when any item is touched by a thief, it multiplies rapidly and burns them, eventually crushing and scorching them to death. Objects within Gringotts cannot be summoned.

Jurisdiction

Gringotts is unique to most of magical Britain. Though Gringotts is an institution of the wixen world, Goblins and other fae creatures hold sovereign oversight of it, including in criminal prosecutions. The British Ministry work closely with the bank to coordinate and prosecute these criminal cases.