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:
“In full view of his television audience, he preached a new religion—or a new form of Christianity—based on faith in financial miracles and in a Heaven here on earth with a water slide and luxury hotels. It was a religion of celebrity and showmanship and fun, which made a mockery of all puritanical standards and all canons of good taste. Its standard was excess, and its doctrines were tolerance and freedom from accountability.”
—New Yorker (April 23, 1990)
“An institution is the lengthened shadow of one man.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)