Finance and Banking Icons for PowerPoint Presentations: Complete Guide

Finance presentations require icons that match the seriousness of the content. Clip-art dollar signs and cartoonish piggy banks get rejected in managing director review; abstract growth representations and clean chart icons pass.

This guide covers the essential finance and banking icons you need, where to find them, and how to style them for investment banking pitchbooks, PE materials, and corporate finance presentations.

After analyzing icon choices across 200+ financial presentations, we've tracked which icons get approved versus rejected—and identified the patterns that determine credibility.

Why Finance Icons Matter in Presentations#

Finance presentations operate in a credibility-sensitive environment. Your audience—whether managing directors, CFOs, or investment committees—evaluates not just your analysis but how you present it. Visual choices signal attention to detail and professional judgment.

Icons serve specific purposes in financial presentations:

Visual hierarchy for dense content. Financial decks often include heavy quantitative content—tables, charts, models. Icons create breathing room and guide attention through complex information.

Quick concept communication. A growth arrow communicates trajectory faster than text. A shield icon signals risk management immediately. This visual efficiency matters when presenting to time-pressed executives.

Professional polish. Consistent, well-chosen icons signal that the team cares about quality. Inconsistent or amateurish icons—clip-art coins, cartoonish money bags—suggest sloppiness that makes audiences question the underlying analysis.

Brand alignment. Financial institutions invest heavily in brand perception. Icons that match corporate aesthetics reinforce brand consistency across all client touchpoints.

We learned the stakes of icon choice early in our careers. A colleague once used bright green dollar signs with 3D effects in a pitch to a conservative private equity firm. The partner's feedback: "This looks like a get-rich-quick infomercial. Start over." Same analysis, different icons—the revised version with clean, navy blue line icons closed the deal.

Types of Finance Icons You Need#

Financial presentations require icons across several categories. Here's what to include in your icon library:

Currency and Money Symbols#

Best practices:

• Currency symbols should match your audience geography
• Avoid literal cash imagery (bills, coins) for institutional audiences
• Simple dollar signs work better than elaborate money graphics
• Growth arrows combined with currency symbols communicate financial trajectory

Our experience: We use simple currency symbols ($, EUR) for transaction value slides and abstract growth icons for performance discussions. Literal money imagery—stacked bills, falling coins—is reserved only for consumer-facing content, never for B2B financial presentations.

Financial Metrics and Charts#

Best practices:

• Chart icons should match the chart type you're discussing
• Upward arrows are universal but overused—combine with specific metrics
• Dashboard/gauge icons work well for KPI summaries
• Avoid overly complex multi-element chart icons

Banking and Institutional#

Best practices:

• Building with columns is the universal bank symbol
• Shield icons communicate security without alarm
• Avoid dated imagery (literal vault doors with combination locks)
• Simple institutional silhouettes work better than detailed buildings

Investment and Transactions#

Best practices:

• Handshake icons for deals should be professional, not cartoon-style
• Rocket icons for IPOs work for startups but may feel inappropriate for mature companies
• Pipeline/funnel icons effectively show deal stages
• Avoid overly celebratory imagery (confetti, trophies) for transaction slides

Our experience: M&A slides benefit from merging arrows or combined shapes rather than literal handshakes. When presenting acquisition rationale to a board, abstract concepts (synergy represented by merging circles) communicate better than obvious imagery.

Risk and Compliance#

Best practices:

• Warning symbols should be used sparingly—overuse creates alarm fatigue
• Shields communicate protection without suggesting danger
• Scales convey balance and fairness for governance topics
• Document icons with checkmarks work for compliance verification

Financial Services Categories#

Where to Find Finance Icons (Free and Premium)#

Comparison of Finance Icon Sources#

PowerPoint 365 Built-in Icons#

Microsoft's built-in library includes decent finance coverage.

How to access: Insert > Icons > Search "finance" or "money"

What you get:

• Basic currency symbols
• Chart and graph icons
• Building and institutional icons
• Growth and metrics symbols

Pros:

• Already in PowerPoint—no downloads
• Consistent styling
• SVG format for easy recoloring

Cons:

• Limited selection for specialized finance concepts
• Same icons everyone uses
• Gaps in investment banking categories

Best for: Quick internal presentations when you need standard symbols.

Deckary Icon Library#

Deckary includes 600+ icons curated for business and finance presentations.

Finance-relevant categories:

• Financial metrics and charts
• Currency and money symbols
• Growth and performance
• Process and workflow
• Professional people icons

Pros:

• Accessible directly from PowerPoint panel
• Consistent line weights and styling
• No attribution required
• Instant insertion without downloads

Cons:

• Requires Deckary subscription
• Smaller total selection than Flaticon

Best for: Investment banking teams, consultants, and finance professionals building presentations regularly.

Our workflow: For pitchbook creation, we use Deckary for 80% of icons because the time savings compound. A deck with 15 icons that would take 30-45 minutes to source externally takes under 3 minutes with an integrated library.

Flaticon#

Website: flaticon.com

The largest icon database with over 1.4 million finance-related icons.

Search tips:

• "Finance" returns 1.4M+ results
• "Banking" narrows to banking-specific
• "Investment" for transaction-related
• Filter by style (line, filled, color)

Pros:

• Massive selection—if a finance icon exists, Flaticon has it
• Icon packs for consistent styling
• Multiple formats available

Cons:

• Free tier requires attribution
• Easy to spend 30+ minutes browsing
• Quality varies across designers
• Must download and import files

Best for: Finding specific or niche finance icons not available elsewhere.

Our experience: Flaticon's finance selection is unmatched. We use it for specialized icons like "securitization" or "derivative" that generic libraries don't cover. But the download-import workflow adds significant time.

The Noun Project#

Website: thenounproject.com

Curated collection with 150,000+ finance-related icons.

Strengths:

• Strong conceptual icons (growth, synergy, transformation)
• High design quality
• Professional aesthetics

Cons:

• Attribution required on free tier
• Some icons too artistic for conservative finance
• Pro plan ($40/year) needed for attribution-free use

Best for: Abstract financial concepts and strategy presentations.

How to Add Finance Icons to PowerPoint#

Method 1: PowerPoint's Built-in Library#

Steps:

1. Go to Insert > Icons
2. Search "finance," "money," "banking," or specific concepts
3. Select icon(s) and click Insert
4. Resize using corner handles (hold Shift for proportions)
5. Recolor: Select icon > Format > Shape Fill

Time per icon: 15-30 seconds

Best for: Quick inserts when standard icons suffice.

Method 2: External Download (SVG)#

Steps:

1. Find icon on Flaticon, Noun Project, or other source
2. Download as SVG format
3. In PowerPoint: Insert > Pictures > This Device
4. Select the SVG file
5. Resize and recolor as needed

Time per icon: 2-3 minutes

Best for: Specific icons not in built-in library.

Important: Always download SVG format when available. PNG files cannot be recolored in PowerPoint and may pixelate when resized.

Method 3: PowerPoint Add-in#

For tools like Deckary with integrated icon libraries:

Steps:

1. Open the add-in panel in PowerPoint
2. Browse or search finance icons
3. Click to insert directly onto slide
4. Resize and recolor as needed

Time per icon: 5-10 seconds

Best for: Finance professionals building presentations regularly.

Best Practices for Using Finance Icons#

Maintain Style Consistency#

The most common icon mistake in financial presentations is mixing styles. One slide has thin outline icons, the next has chunky filled icons, the third has 3D isometric icons.

Rules:

• Choose ONE style (outline OR filled, not both)
• All icons should have similar line weights
• Don't mix icons from different sources unless they visually match
• Apply the same color treatment throughout

We audit every pitchbook before delivery for icon consistency. It takes 2 minutes and catches mismatches that would otherwise undermine professionalism.

Use Appropriate Colors#

Finance presentations demand restraint in color choices.

Safe color choices:

• Navy blue (most common in banking)
• Dark gray/charcoal
• Forest green (for growth, with caution)
• Burgundy (for premium/wealth management)
• Your firm's brand color

Colors to avoid:

• Bright primary colors (red, blue, yellow)
• Neon or fluorescent colors
• Multicolor/rainbow palettes
• Green for money (too literal, reads as amateur)

Color approach:

• Single color: Most professional, matches brand
• Two colors: Primary for most, accent for emphasis
• Avoid: Different color for each icon

Size Icons Appropriately#

Icons should support content, not dominate it.

Common mistake: Making icons too large because there's space. Oversized icons draw disproportionate attention and unbalance slides.

Align Icons Precisely#

Misaligned icons look unprofessional—especially problematic in finance presentations where precision matters.

Alignment tools:

1. Select multiple icons
2. Format > Align > Align Middle (vertical alignment)
3. Format > Align > Distribute Horizontally (equal spacing)

Or use keyboard shortcuts for alignment for faster workflow.

Match Icons to Audience#

A rocket icon for "growth" works in a fintech pitch. It looks out of place in a presentation to a 150-year-old commercial bank's credit committee.

Consider:

• Institutional culture (conservative vs. progressive)
• Audience seniority (MDs expect restraint)
• Industry norms (PE vs. retail banking aesthetics)
• Brand guidelines when presenting to clients

Common Mistakes to Avoid#

1. Using Literal Money Imagery#

Stacked cash, falling coins, and overflowing piggy banks read as unsophisticated to senior finance audiences.

Problem icons:

• Cash stacks or bills
• Coin piles
• Cartoon piggy banks
• Money bags with dollar signs
• Gold bars

Better alternatives:

• Abstract growth arrows
• Clean chart icons
• Simple currency symbols
• Metric and percentage representations

Our experience: We once had a managing director reject an entire deck because the money icons "looked like a children's game about saving allowance." The content was solid—the icons undermined it.

2. Mixing Icon Styles#

Line icons next to filled icons next to 3D icons creates visual chaos.

Solution: Pick one style. If you find a perfect icon in a different style, either find an alternative in your chosen style or don't use it. Consistency matters more than individual icon perfection.

3. Overusing Icons#

Not every concept needs an icon. Overusing icons dilutes their impact and clutters slides.

Use icons for:

• Section differentiation
• Abstract concept visualization
• Breaking up text-heavy slides
• Process steps and flows

Skip icons for:

• Every single bullet point
• Concepts already clear from text
• Slides with charts or other visuals
• When space is limited

4. Dated or Unprofessional Styles#

Clip-art aesthetic, glossy 3D effects, or overly decorated icons look dated.

Avoid:

• 3D effects and shadows
• Gradient fills (unless brand-appropriate)
• Clip-art style illustrations
• Overly detailed or complex icons
• Comic or cartoon styles

Use:

• Clean line or filled icons
• Flat design aesthetic
• Minimal detail
• Professional, current styling

5. Poor Color Choices#

Bright, playful colors signal "consumer product" not "serious financial services."

Avoid:

• Primary color palettes
• Bright greens for money (too literal)
• Multiple colors per icon
• Colors that clash with slides

Use:

• Brand colors
• Navy, charcoal, or professional neutrals
• Single color throughout deck
• Subtle accent color for emphasis

6. Icons That Don't Match Content#

Using a rocket for "growth" when presenting to a conservative pension fund, or a piggy bank when discussing institutional asset management.

Solution: Match icon sophistication to audience expectations. When in doubt, choose more abstract, less literal representations.

Icon Style Guide for Finance Presentations#

Investment Banking Pitchbooks#

Style: Clean line icons, 1.5-2px stroke weight Colors: Navy blue, dark gray, or client brand colors Size: 0.4-0.5" for body content, 0.75" for headers Tone: Professional, understated, sophisticated

Recommended icons:

• Abstract growth arrows (not dollar signs)
• Clean chart representations
• Merger/connection symbols
• Shield and security icons
• Professional building silhouettes

Private Equity Materials#

Style: Line or minimal filled icons Colors: Dark blue, burgundy, forest green Size: Slightly larger acceptable (0.5-0.6" for body) Tone: Premium, confident, exclusive

Recommended icons:

• Portfolio/allocation representations
• Growth and value creation symbols
• Fund structure diagrams
• Deal pipeline visuals

Corporate Finance Presentations#

Style: Matches corporate brand guidelines Colors: Brand primary and secondary Size: Per brand standards Tone: Aligned with corporate identity

Recommended icons:

• Financial performance metrics
• Strategic initiative symbols
• Operational efficiency icons
• Stakeholder and governance visuals

Retail and Consumer Banking#

Style: Slightly more approachable, still professional Colors: Brand colors, warmer tones acceptable Size: Can be slightly larger for accessibility Tone: Trustworthy, accessible, modern

Recommended icons:

• Mobile and digital banking
• Customer and service representations
• Security and protection symbols
• Branch and accessibility icons

Summary: Key Takeaways#

Finance and banking presentations require icons that match the seriousness of the content:

1. Choose appropriate imagery: Avoid literal money icons (cash, coins, piggy banks) for institutional audiences. Use abstract growth representations, clean charts, and professional symbols.

2. Maintain consistency: One icon style (line or filled), one color palette, consistent sizing throughout the deck.

3. Source efficiently: PowerPoint 365's built-in icons work for basics. For regular presentation building, integrated libraries like Deckary's 600+ business icons save significant time.

4. Match audience expectations: Conservative icons for conservative institutions. Adjust style based on industry norms and audience seniority.

5. Align precisely: Use PowerPoint's alignment tools for professional positioning. Misaligned icons undermine credibility.

6. Less is more: Don't over-icon slides. Use icons strategically for section headers, abstract concepts, and visual relief—not every bullet point.

The best finance icons are invisible in the sense that they support content without drawing attention to themselves. They communicate professionalism through restraint rather than decoration.

For finance professionals building presentations regularly, investing in a curated icon solution pays back in saved time and improved quality. Try Deckary free to access 600+ professional icons directly in PowerPoint, plus waterfall charts, Excel-linked charts, and other finance-grade presentation tools.