Last reviewed: · Curated by Ohmyfin Organisation editorial.
Nostro ("ours" in Latin) and vostro ("yours") accounts are the bilateral accounts that correspondent banks hold for each other. They are the physical mechanism through which every international wire transfer actually moves money — before SWIFT even sends a message. Track any international wire on Ohmyfin →
When Bank A in Germany wants to send USD to Bank B in the US, it cannot do so directly unless it holds a USD account somewhere in the US banking system. Bank A solves this by maintaining a "nostro" account — a USD-denominated account held at a US correspondent bank (say, JPMorgan Chase). From Bank A's perspective, this is "our account at their bank" = nostro. From JPMorgan's perspective, Bank A's account is a "vostro" — "your account at our bank".
The same account has two names depending on perspective: it is a nostro when described by the account holder, and a vostro when described by the account keeper. In practice, bankers use "nostro" to describe accounts they hold abroad and "vostro" to describe accounts held by foreign banks at their institution.
When a cross-border wire is sent: (1) your bank debits your account; (2) your bank instructs its correspondent bank to debit its nostro account and credit the next bank in the chain; (3) this debit/credit chain propagates until the beneficiary bank's account is credited. SWIFT messages coordinate this but the actual movement of funds is the simultaneous debiting and crediting of nostro/vostro accounts at each correspondent.
The SWIFT GPI tracker (visible on Ohmyfin) effectively traces the path of a payment as it hops from one nostro relationship to the next. Each status update in the GPI chain corresponds to a correspondent bank confirming it has processed the nostro debit and is forwarding to the next correspondent. This is why "ACSP" (Accepted, Settlement in Progress) shows up multiple times — once at each correspondent hop.
De-risking refers to the global trend of large banks closing nostro/vostro relationships with smaller or higher-risk correspondent banks to reduce compliance exposure. The BIS estimates the number of active correspondent banking relationships globally fell by about 25% between 2011 and 2022. Fewer nostro relationships mean longer payment chains, higher fees, and slower settlement for affected corridors.
Because they explain why an international wire is not "instant". Each correspondent in the chain must debit and credit its nostro/vostro accounts, run compliance checks, and forward the payment — all during its own operating hours and cut-off windows. This is why cross-border wires take 1–5 days.
"Loro" (Italian/Latin for "theirs") is used when Bank A is talking to Bank B about an account held by Bank C at Bank B. So while nostro and vostro are always the same account seen from two perspectives, loro refers to a third party's account at the bank you're talking to. It is mainly used in trade finance and internal bank communications.
Major global banks (Citibank, HSBC, JPMorgan, Deutsche Bank) maintain hundreds of nostro accounts — one for each major currency at one or more correspondent banks in each country. Running nostro accounts requires liquidity, reconciliation, and compliance — which is why de-risking has reduced the number of active relationships.
Yes — on Ohmyfin, each SWIFT GPI status entry shows the BIC of the correspondent bank that processed the payment at that hop. Each BIC links to Ohmyfin's /swift-codes directory so you can identify every institution your payment passed through.
No card needed. Free for ordinary users — completely free for individuals — no daily limit, no card required. Track any international wire across 11,000+ banks.
Track a payment now — completely free Or try the tracker now →