The financial services industry includes many different businesses that provide products and services related to money management, investment, savings, borrowing and lending. It also covers insurance and other aspects of the economy that affect how people and companies manage their finances.
These business services help people plan for life’s milestones by assisting them with their investing and saving habits. Banks, for example, do more than just store people’s money; they offer products to help them make big purchases like houses and cars. They look at their data to anticipate when pivotal life events are going to happen for their customers so they can be ready to serve them.
Financial services also include the creation of capital for businesses by providing venture capital or angel investments. They also help companies raise funds by providing private equity or debt financing. Additionally, they can facilitate the transfer of money between banks and even between countries through foreign exchange.
This industry sector also offers a range of ancillary services like bill discounting, factoring and credit card services to their customers. Additionally, they do the optimum allocation of risk bearing by merging, trading and trading of various kinds of risks used in mobilizing savings and assigning credit.
Some of the more specialized sectors of financial services are family office services, which are wealth management firms that handle the finances for wealthy families and individuals. Another is prime brokerage, a bundled broker service that serves clients with high-net worth assets.