http://financecareers.about.com/od/overview/a/overview.htmhttp://salescareers.about.com/od/Careers/a/Financial-Services-Sales-Profeessionals.htmhttp://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/financial-structure.htmlFinancial Services is a term used to refer to the services provided by the finance market. Financial Services is also the term used to describe organizations that deal with the management of money. Examples are the Banks, investment banks, insurance companies, credit card companies and stock brokerages.

These are the types of firms comprising the market, that provide a variety of money and investment related services. Financial services are the largest market resource within the world, in terms of earnings.

Defining Financial Services can also be termed as, any service or product of a financial nature that is the area under discussion to, or is governed by a measure maintained by a Party or by a public body that exercises regulatory or supervisory authority delegated by law.

Understanding Financial Services

Financial Services are generally not limited to the field of deposit-taking, loan and investment services, but is also present in the fields of insurance, estate, trust and agency services, securities, and all forms of financial or market intermediation including the distribution of financial products.

Aligned with a background of sharp risk, market and regulatory pressures, Financial Services organizations are striving to grow and enhance their shareholder values.

Day by day the customer needs and expectations are growing. Thus, making the mark in increasing personal wealth, a mature population and the desire that can more easily be reached to the personalized financial products and services. Intense competition has squeezed market margins and forced most companies to cut costs while enhancing the quality of customer choice and service.

As Financial Services organizations strive to become more innovative and entrepreneurial, the war for talent is intensifying. The risks increase as the products become more complex, the organizations and the business environment ever more uncertain.

At the same time, regulation is the tightening highlight within the reach of public and government pressure for improved supremacy, transparency and accountability.

In this environment, the winners will be companies that can turn the challenges into opportunities to build stronger and more enduring customer relationships, sharpen their process efficiency, unlock talent and creativity, use improved risk management processes to deliver more sustainable returns and use used regulatory demands as a catalyst for strengthening the business and enhancing market confidence.

The fast pace of change aspect element within the global Financial Services market has created the need for a new generation of solutions that can operate in real time with a very flawless reliability.

The challenges faced by the Financial Services market are forcing market participants to keep pace with technological advances, and to become more proactive and efficient while keeping in mind to reduce costs and risks.

The Financial Services have been able to represent an increasingly significant financial driver, and a significant consumer of a wide range of business services and products. The current Fortune 500 has listed 40 commercial banking companies with revenues of almost a $341 trillion, up a modest 3% since last year.

Another $700 trillion or so comes from the 57 companies comprising the savings institutions, insurance and diversified financial companies.

The market in Financial Services is not only a powerful economic force, but can also be considered as a driver of other industries' success, standards, and operations. Virtually each and every company uses financial services institutions for not only their own, but their customers business purposes, and the practices, regulations and standards that the market adopts affects the way that their own customers.

To have an effective network strategy in place enables the Financial Services organizations to become more customer-oriented. This helps to increase their profitability, enhance the alertness factor, also lessen total ownership costs, and deal with used business challenges.

There are many companies working with financial organizations worldwide to develop a sound networking strategy for connecting companies with customers, suppliers, partners, and employees too.

Thus concluding here that the Financial Services market is diverse and dynamic. An ever-changing versatile, high-growth market, Financial Services consist of everything from individual or group consultants to banks, credit cards and alternative financing providers.

Businesses that have differing needs and the diversity and range of the financial services market has several selections available to better suit them all.

There is a lot you can learn about the Financial Services industry. It is an exciting, important industry that has a direct impact on the way businesses operate and grow, and subsequently, the economy of our nation too.

Financial services

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Financial servicesare theeconomic servicesprovided by the finance industry, which encompasses a broad range of organizations that manage money, includingcredit unions,banks,credit cardcompanies,insurancecompanies,accountancycompanies,consumer financecompanies,stock brokerages,investment fundsand somegovernment sponsored enterprises.

As of 2004, the financial services industry represented 20% of themarket capitalizationof theS&P 500in theUnited States. The U.S.finance industrycomprised only 10% of total non-farm business profits in 1947, but it grew to 50% by 2010. Over the same period, finance industry income as a proportion of GDP rose from 2.5% to 7.5%, and the finance industry's proportion of all corporate income rose from 10% to 20%.

Contents

[hide] 1The history of financial servis 2Banks 2.1Commercial banking services 2.2Investment banking services 3Foreign exchange services 4Investment services 5Insurance 6Other financial services 7Financial crime 7.1UK 8Market share 9See also 10References 11Further reading 12External linksThe history of financial servis[edit]The term "financial services" became more prevalent in theUnited Statespartly as a result of theGramm-Leach-Bliley Actof the late 1990s, which enabled different types of companies operating in the U.S. financial services industry at that time to merge.[1]Companies usually have two distinct approaches to this new type of business. One approach would be a bank which simply buys an insurance company or aninvestment bank, keeps the originalbrandsof the acquired firm, and adds theacquisitionto its holding company simply to diversify itsearnings. Outside the U.S. (e.g., inJapan), non-financial services companies are permitted within theholding company. In this scenario, each company still looks independent, and has its own customers, etc. In the other style, a bank would simply create its own brokerage division or insurance division and attempt to sell those products to its own existing customers, with incentives for combining all things with one company.

Banks[edit]Main article:BankCommercial banking services[edit]A "commercial bank" is what is commonly referred to as simply a "bank". The term "commercial" is used to distinguish it from an "investment bank," a type of financial services entity which, instead of lending money directly to a business, helps businesses raise money from other firms in the form ofbonds(debt) orstock(equity).

The primary operations of banks include:

Keeping moneysafewhile also allowingwithdrawalswhen needed

Issuance ofchequebooksso that bills can be paid and other kinds of payments can be delivered by post

Providepersonal loans,commercial loans, andmortgage loans(typically loans to purchase a home, property or business)

Issuance ofcredit cardsand processing of credit cardtransactionsand billing

Issuance ofdebit cardsfor use as a substitute for cheques

Allow financial transactions at branches or by usingAutomatic Teller Machines(ATMs)

Provide wire transfers of funds andElectronic fund transfersbetween banks

Facilitation of standing orders and directdebits, so payments for bills can be made automatically

Provideoverdraftagreements for the temporary advancement of the Bank's own money to meet monthly spending commitments of a customer in their current account.

Provide internet banking system to facilitate the customers to view and operate their respective accounts through internet.

Provide Charge card advances of the Bank's own money for customers wishing to settle credit advances monthly.

Provide a check guaranteed by the Bank itself and prepaid by the customer, such as acashier's checkorcertified check.

Notaryservice for financial and other documents

Accepting the deposits from customer and provide the credit facilities to them.

Sell Investment products like Mutual funds etc.

Investment banking services[edit] Capital marketsservices -underwritingdebt andequity, assist company deals (advisory services, underwriting,mergers and acquisitionsand advisory fees), and restructure debt intostructured financeproducts.

Private banking- Private banks provide banking services exclusively tohigh-net-worth individuals. Many financial services firms require a person or family to have a certain minimum net worth to qualify for private banking services.[2]Private banks often provide more personal services, such as wealth management and tax planning, than normal retail banks.[3] Brokerageservices - facilitating the buying and selling offinancial securitiesbetween a buyer and a seller.

Foreign exchange services[edit]Foreign exchange services are provided by many banks and specialistforeign exchange brokersaround the world. Foreign exchange services include:

Currency exchange- where clients can purchase and sell foreign currency banknotes.

Wire transfer- where clients can send funds to international banks abroad.

Remittance- where client that are migrant workers send money back to their home country.

Investment services[edit] Asset management- the term usually given to describe companies which runcollective investment funds. Also refers to services provided by others, generally registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission asRegistered Investment Advisors. Investment banking financial services focus on creating capital through client investments.

Hedge fund management- Hedge funds often employ the services of "prime brokerage" divisions at major investment banks to execute their trades.

Custody services - the safe-keeping and processing of the world's securities trades and servicing the associated portfolios. Assets under custody in the world are approximately US$100trillion.[4]Insurance[edit]Main article:Insurance Insurance brokerage -Insurance brokersshop for insurance (generally corporate property and casualty insurance) on behalf of customers. Recently a number of websites have been created to give consumers basic price comparisons for services such as insurance, causing controversy within the industry.[5] Insurance underwriting - Personal lines insuranceunderwritersactually underwrite insurance for individuals, a service still offered primarily through agents,insurance brokers, andstock brokers. Underwriters may also offer similar commercial lines of coverage for businesses. Activities include insurance andannuities,life insurance, retirement insurance,health insurance, andproperty & casualty insurance.

Reinsurance- Reinsurance is insurance sold to insurers themselves, to protect them from catastrophic losses.

Other financial services[edit] Bank cards- include bothcredit cardsanddebit cards. Bank Of America is the largest issuer of bank cards.[citation needed] Credit card machine services and networks - Companies which provide credit card machine and payment networks call themselves "merchant card providers".

Intermediation or advisory services - These services involve stock brokers (private client services) anddiscount brokers. Stock brokers assist investors in buying or selling shares. Primarily internet-based companies are often referred to as discount brokerages, although many now have branch offices to assist clients. These brokerages primarily target individual investors. Full service and private client firms primarily assist and execute trades for clients with large amounts of capital to invest, such as large companies, wealthy individuals, and investment management funds.

Private equity -Private equityfunds are typically closed-end funds, which usually take controlling equity stakes in businesses that are either private, or taken private once acquired. Private equity funds often use leveraged buyouts (LBOs) to acquire the firms in which they invest. The most successful private equity funds can generate returns significantly higher than provided by the equity markets

Venture capitalis a type of private equity capital typically provided by professional, outside investors to new, high-potential-growth companies in the interest of taking the company to an IPO or trade sale of the business.

Angel investment - Anangel investoror angel (known as a business angel or informal investor in Europe), is an affluent individual who provides capital for a business start-up, usually in exchange for convertible debt or ownership equity. A small but increasing number of angel investors organize themselves into angel groups or angel networks to share research and pool their investment capital.

Conglomerates- A financial services company such as auniversal bankthat is active in more than one sector of the financial services market e.g. life insurance, general insurance, health insurance, asset management,retail banking, wholesale banking, investment banking, etc. A key rationale for the existence of such businesses is the existence of diversification benefits that are present when different types of businesses are aggregated i.e. bad things don't always happen at the same time. As a consequence,economic capitalfor a conglomerate is usually substantially less thaneconomic capitalis for the sum of its parts.

Financial market utilities - Organisations that are part of the infrastructure of financial services, such asstock exchanges,clearing houses, derivative and commodityexchangesandpayment systemssuch asreal-time gross settlementsystems orinterbank networks.

Debt resolutionis a consumer service that assists individuals that have too much debt to pay off as requested, but do not want to file bankruptcy and wish to pay off their debts owed. This debt can be accrued in various ways including but not limited to personal loans, credit cards or in some cases merchant accounts.

Financial crime[edit]UK[edit]Fraudwithin the financial industry costs the UK (regulated by theFSA) an estimated 14bn a year and it is believed a further 25bn islaunderedby British institutions.[6]Market share[edit]The U.S. finance industry comprised only 10% of total non-farm business profits in 1947, but it grew to 50% by 2010. Over the same period, finance industry income as a proportion of GDP rose from 2.5% to 7.5%, and the finance industry's proportion of all corporate income rose from 10% to 20%. The mean earnings per employee hour in finance relative to all other sectors has closely mirrored the share of total U.S. income earned by the top 1% income earners since 1930. The mean salary in New York City's finance industry rose from $80,000 in 1981 to $360,000 in 2011, while average New York City salaries rose from $40,000 to $70,000. In 1988, there were about 12,500 U.S. banks with less than $300 million in deposits, and about 900 with more deposits, but by 2012, there were only 4,200 banks with less than $300 million in deposits in the U.S., and over 1,800 with more.

The financial services industry constitutes the largest group of companies in the world in terms of earnings and equity market capitalization. However it is not the largest category in terms of revenue or number of employees. It is also a slow growing and extremely fragmented industry, with the largest company (Citigroup), only having a 3% USmarket share.[7]In contrast, the largest home improvement store in the US,Home Depot, has a 30% market share, and the largest coffee houseStarbuckshas a market share of 32% .