Nostro and vostro accounts

Common card · No. 473215

Nostro and vostro (from Italian, nostro and vostro; English, 'ours' and 'yours') are accounting terms used to distinguish an account held for another entity from an account another entity holds. The entities in question are usually banks. The terms nostro and vostro are used, mainly by banks, when one bank keeps money at another bank (in a correspondent account often called a nostro or vostro account). Both banks need to keep records of how much money is being kept by one bank on behalf of the other. In order to distinguish between the two sets of records of the same balance and set of transactions, banks refer to the accounts as nostro and vostro. Speaking from the point of view of the bank whose money is being held at another bank: A nostro is our account of our money (in which country you are staying), held by the other bank or "Foreign Bank". A vostro is our account of other bank / "Foreign Bank's" money, held by us (by your country's bank) A vostro account is a record of money held...

Read on Wikipedia