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In the first Harry Potter book, Hagrid tells Harry that Gringotts is the only bank:

‘They didn’ keep their gold in the house, boy! Nah, first stop fer us is Gringotts. Wizards’ bank. Have a sausage, they’re not bad cold – an’ I wouldn’ say no teh a bit o’ yer birthday cake, neither.’

‘Wizards have banks?’

‘Just the one. Gringotts. Run by goblins.’

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Chapter 5: Diagon Alley.

In the second one, we learn that Gringotts has people working in others places of the world:

Bill was the oldest Weasley brother. He and the next brother, Charlie, had already left Hogwarts. Harry had never met either of them, but knew that Charlie was in Romania, studying dragons, and Bill in Egypt, working for the wizards’ bank, Gringotts.

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Chapter 4: At Flourish and Blotts.

It has been suggested on this very website that there is probably more than one currency in Harry Potter's wizarding world: Are the wizard coins in the Harry Potter books international?. (Personally, I'm of the opinion that Rowling used a hyperbole in the passage discussed in that question).


So, was Hagrid exaggerating? Was he referring just to the United Kingdom? Is Gringotts really the one and only bank on Earth? And, more importantly, is there any canon answer that supports either hypothesis?


Possible answer: https://scifi.stackexchange.com/a/50088/23401

The Dark Lord
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Alfredo Hernández
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Bill is referred to as going to Egypt with Gringott's - the obvious assumption is that there's one "bank organisation" with multiple branches, one of which is in London.

Jon Story
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  • Not necessarily. Some companies send their employees in a collaborative work with another company. He could easily have been working both for Gringotts and the Egyptian National Bank or whatever. – Alfredo Hernández Dec 02 '14 at 13:46
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    He was working as a curse breaker in Egypt. That doesn't necessarily mean Gringotts' has a branch there, only that there's known cursed tombs containing treasures there. – Anthony Grist Dec 02 '14 at 15:36
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    Also, Gringotts probably has a monopoly enforced by law in Britain. That monopoly may not exist in every country in which Gringotts has a footprint. In other words, in some countries, Gringotts may exist, but have the competition they don't have in Britain. – pleurocoelus Feb 10 '16 at 02:21