What Is The Definition Of Financial Services?

Financial services can be defined as the products and services offered by institutions like banks of various kinds for the facilitation of various financial transactions and other related activities in the world of finance like loans, insurance, credit cards, investment opportunities and money management as well as providing information on the stock market and other issues like market trends.

The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act enacted in the late 1990s brought the term financial services into prominence when it repealed earlier laws which forbade a bank or any financial institution from venturing into fields like insurance and investment. The result was the merger of many organizations offering the above mentioned services under one banner giving rise to a new type of banking popularly known as Commercial Banking and a number of organizations like Citibank came into existence purely as service providers.

The Finance services industry though a highly profitable Industry with respect to earnings does not count for a large share of the market and also employs a lesser number of people as compared to some of the other Industries. Some of the major service providers and commercial banks in this field are:

1. Citibank
2. HSBC
3. Standard Chartered
4. Citigroup
5. Merrill Lynch
6. Morgan Stanley
7. ING (Investment)
8. American Express (Credit Card)
9. VISA (Credit Card)
10. Allianz (Insurance)