Financial services is a broad sector that encompasses a wide variety of organisations, including banks, hedge fund managers, and small community banks. It’s also a huge industry that impacts everyone in big and small ways.
Getting Started
The financial sector is a critical component of our nation’s economy. Without it, we would struggle to make and keep money in our savings accounts or borrow funds to buy goods and services. In addition, the industry has a crucial role to play in keeping us safe from catastrophic events.
What Are the Pros and Cons of a Career in Financial Services?
The pros of a career in financial services include the fact that it pays well, often at a higher level than other fields. Moreover, the field has plenty of opportunities for career growth and expansion.
In many cases, a degree isn’t necessary to get into the field. Rather, it’s your interpersonal skills that are important to successful career advancement in the field.
A financial advisor can help you plan for the future and provide advice on a range of issues. They can also give you guidance on investments, help you value your business, and assist you with real estate endeavors.
Some financial services careers may require you to work long hours and have little control over your schedule, while others can allow you to have a more balanced lifestyle between your job and your personal life. However, the downsides to these jobs can include high stress levels and burnout.
How It Works
The Financial Services Sector consists of businesses that serve the public through intermediation, which is the process of moving money from savers to borrowers and redistributing risk. These include banks, insurance companies, and asset-backed lending companies.
When someone deposits money in a bank, the money is held on deposit for a certain amount of time, as dictated by Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) requirements. After that, the money is lent to a borrower in order to generate income for the bank.
Likewise, a mortgage broker takes in deposits from people who want to purchase homes and loans them the money to pay for those houses. They then earn interest on the loan and give some of that to the customer who deposited the money.
Investment firms, which are not banks, provide investment and lending services to firms, which in turn generate higher returns than they pay for the accumulated deposits. They can offer mergers and acquisitions, debt and equity financing, restructuring, and investment management.
Other types of services offered by the financial sector include accountants, tax filing services, currency exchange and wire transfer providers, credit card machine services, and network systems. These service providers can be large or small, and they can serve consumers from all over the world.
There are also independent regulatory bodies, such as the FINRA and OCC, that regulate the operations of different financial institutions in an effort to uphold transparency and ensure their clients are treated fairly.