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Inspiration of this question comes from this answer: https://scifi.stackexchange.com/a/84596/

From the linked question:

For example, they have a system that will imprison a thief inside an impregnable vault and seal him up in there without sustenance for up to ten years. Does that sound like the kind of thing the ministry would approve of? (Well, considering Azkaban and the dementors, maybe.) And they were keeping a live dragon in London (well, under London) against all the rules. I don't think the Ministry can muster sufficient authority to discipline Gringotts and being the kind of bureaucrats they were, they were probably happy to see Gringotts embarrassed.

This is kind of funny, but 100% factual. Does Gringotts simply ignore laws by locking someone in a vault for 10 years? Or, does Gringotts get a special treatment from Ministry of Magic? Or, is Gringotts simply independent of wizarding laws maintaining own sovereign statue?

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    Gringotts' is a Goblin organisation, and as such probably plays (somewhat) by its own rules and not the rules of "wand-carriers"...
    – Möoz
    Commented Mar 24, 2015 at 1:42
  • I don't know of any laws, but they likely have a lot of political leverage considering they're the only bank in the Wizarding world
    – Jason Baker
    Commented Mar 24, 2015 at 1:52
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    @SS "Only banking company" may be more clear; Gringott's likely has multiple branches, but they're all part of the same bank. Also I suppose it's not clear they're the only wizarding bank in the world, but they're certainly the only one in England
    – Jason Baker
    Commented Mar 24, 2015 at 1:57
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    Is Gringotts the only bank? How does Gringotts fit into the global picture?
    – phantom42
    Commented Mar 24, 2015 at 2:06
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    Remember the wizarding world is tiny. A single multinational mega bank is not implausible. In the US, the top four banks hold 50% of the bank assets, out of 7000+ banks, servicing a population of 300 million.
    – user16696
    Commented Mar 24, 2015 at 5:52

1 Answer 1

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  1. Gringotts is solely run and controlled by Goblins, pre-DH.

    We have this from Griphook in Chapter 12 of DH discussing why he's on the run:

    “Duties ill-befitting the dignity of my race,” replied the goblin, his voice rougher and less human as he said it. “I am not a house-elf.”
    “What about you, Griphook?”
    “Similar reasons,” said the higher voiced goblin. “Gringotts is no longer under the sole control of my race. I recognize no Wizarding master.”

    This implies that - at least according to Griphook's opinion - before Voldemort's takeover of MoM, Gringotts was under full sole control of Goblins

  1. And Goblins are clearly NOT fully subject to MoM:

    Leaving aside Griphook's comment above (which kind of implies that), we also see that they are they are somewhere between a foreign entity and autonomous entity (the "rebellions" imply the latter), so they basically run a mostly independent "thing" - partially, by "choice" of the MoM (whether that choice is because they don't care or because they are powerless is beside the point) - and partially because of politics (because things change as soon as Voldemort is in control of MoM).

    This is confirmed by the fact that Harry Potter sees "Goblin Liason Office" in Chapter 12 of DH (where Dirk Cresswell worked). You don't have "liason office" to a race that's fully your direct subjects.

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