In financial economics, a financial institution is an institution that provides financial services for its clients or members. Probably the most important financial service provided by financial institutions is acting as financial intermediaries. Most financial institutions are regulated by the government.
Broadly speaking, there are three major types of financial institutions:
- Depositary Institutions : Deposit-taking institutions that accept and manage deposits and make loans, including banks, building societies, credit unions, trust companies, and mortgage loan companies
- Contractual Institutions : Insurance companies and pension funds; and
- Investment Institutes : Investment Banks, underwriters, brokerage firms.
Read more about Financial Institution: Function, Standing Settlement Instructions, Regulation
Famous quotes containing the words financial and/or institution:
“A theory of the middle class: that it is not to be determined by its financial situation but rather by its relation to government. That is, one could shade down from an actual ruling or governing class to a class hopelessly out of relation to government, thinking of gov’t as beyond its control, of itself as wholly controlled by gov’t. Somewhere in between and in gradations is the group that has the sense that gov’t exists for it, and shapes its consciousness accordingly.”
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—Mother Jones (1830–1930)