Nostro and vostro accounts - arealive/Viper GitHub Wiki

Correspondent accounts are often called nostro and vostro accounts.

In normal usage:

• A nostro account will be in foreign currency (it is a record of funds held by a bank in another country in the currency of that country) i.e. a bank in country A keeping a record of money held by a bank in country B, in the currency of country B.
• A vostro account will be in the local currency of the bank where the money is being held i.e. it is the bank in Country B's record of the money kept by the bank from country A with it.

For these accounts the domestic bank is acting like a custodian or managing the accounts of a foreign counterpart. These accounts are utilised for facilitating the settlements of Forex and foreign trades.¹

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nostro_and_vostro_accounts