Banking Vocabulary

Have you ever found yourself in a foreign country and needing to do some banking other than just using an ATM? Here's a useful list of Spanish banking vocabulary.

The Spanish word for "bank" is banco. Occasionally, you may hear people using the expressions institución bancaria (banking institution) or entidad bancaria (banking entity) as well, but these two are more commonly used in written documents:

Las condiciones, mm... no se las acepta, eh... o no se las concede la entidad bancaria.

The conditions, mm... are not accepted, um... or are not granted by the banking entity.

Captions 56-57, 75 minutos - Gangas para ricos - Part 12
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Note that in Spanish el banco (the bank) is not the same as la banca (banking), a feminine noun you can hear or read quite often if you follow Spanish-speaking world news. Here’s an example:

El candidato a la presidencia de México afirmó que "la banca es uno de los mejores negocios del país".
The candidate for the presidency of Mexico affirmed that "banking is one of the best businesses in the country."

In Spanish the acronym ATM is rarely used. Instead, Spanish speakers use the expression cajero automático (automatic cashier), which is frequently shortened to cajero.

¡Oh! ¿Dónde está el cajero automático?

Oh! Where's the ATM?

Caption 36, Natalia de Ecuador - Palabras de uso básico
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As in English, the word cajero or cajera (cashier) is also used to refer to the person who handles the caja (cash register, literally "box"). This word can be used anywhere a financial transaction takes place—at stores, banks, entertainment venues, and even zoquitos clubs:

Hay días que la caja tiene más zoquitos que euros? -No.

Are there days when the register has more zoquitos than euros? -No.

Caption 70, 75 minutos - Gangas para ricos - Part 5
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Finalmente, debes ir a la caja y pagar lo que quieras comprar.

Finally, you should go to the cash register and pay for whatever you want to buy.

Captions 40-41, Raquel Haciendo compras
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In Spanish as in English, if a cash register is located behind a glass wall or a small window, you may call it ventanilla (window); hence the use of expressions such as pague en ventanilla (pay at the window) or pase a ventanilla 8 (go to window 8). In movie theaters, for example, you may hear people say ventanilla instead of taquilla (box office) quite often. Of course, sometimes a ventanilla is just a window:

¿Y quiere asiento de ventanilla o de pasillo?

And do you want a window or aisle seat?

Caption 36, Raquel - La Compra de un Billete de Tren
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The word depósito means "deposit," and depositar means "to make a deposit." Some useful expressions are: quiero hacer un depósito or quiero depositar (I want to make a deposit, I want to deposit). And the same formula applies for transferencia (transfer), giro (wire), and retiro (withdrawal).

The word for "currency" is moneda (which also means "coin"):

"Zoquitos" es una... una red de moneda local.

"Zoquitos" is a... a network of local currency.

Caption 23, 75 minutos - Gangas para ricos - Part 2
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The word divisa means "foreign currency." To ask for a currency conversion, you can say quiero hacer un cambio de divisas (I want to make a currency exchange). However, for a more colloquial touch, use something like quiero cambiar dólares a pesos (I want to exchange dollars for pesos).

To learn more about financial terms, try our series Cuentas claras.

Topics Vocabulary