Financial services is a term used to refer to the services provided by the finance industry. Financial services is also the term used to describe organizations that deal with the management of money. Banks, investment banks, insurance companies, credit card companies and stock brokerages, are examples of the types of firms comprising the industry, which provides a variety of money and investment related services. Financial services is the largest industry (or industry category) in the world, in terms of earnings; as of 2004, the industry represents 20% of the market capitalization of the S&P 500.^*

History of financial services

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United States: Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act

The term financial services became more prevalent in the United States partly as a result of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act of the late 1990s, which enabled different types of companies in the US financial services industry to merge. Critics of this act say the term financial services attempts to make the unison of these operations sound natural, ignoring the history of problems that have arisen from combining them, such as conflicts of interest and monopolization. Others, noting that many of the restrictions abolished by the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act had never existed in other countries or had been abolished earlier than in the US, say the term financial services is a natural one, in long term use, which means nothing more than its constituent words.

In the USA almost every company now which previously described themselves as a bank, insurance company, or brokerage house, now describes themselves in some way as a financial services institution. Allstate Insurance, for example, now provides CDs and investment brokerage services. Bank of America offers full featured brokerage products, while E*TRADE has expanded into offering bank accounts and loans. 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 an investment bank, keeps the original brands of the acquired firm, and adds the acquisition to its holding company simply to diversify its earnings. Outside the US, e.g., in Japan, non-financial services companies are permitted within the holding company. In this scenario, each company still looks independent, and has its own customers, etc. This is essentially the style of Citigroup and JP Morgan Chase.

More on [ Financial services ]

TechCrunch

Services Made Flesh: 10 Weird – and Not So Weird – “Avatar” Gadgets
John Biggs Sat, 07 Nov 2009 17:01:50 -0000
The dawn of the 21st century brought us a problem: we had lots of data, but no real way to bring that data into the real world. We could feasibly lug laptops and phones around, but did they ever do exactly what we needed them to do? Don’t answer that. Manufacturers, in their wisdom, decided to do something about it and so devices like the Peek - for email - and the CueCat - for nothing - were born. Here's a look at ten "avatar" gadgets, gadgets that brought a web service into the real world, for better or worse. Twitterpeek - We should be nicer to the Twitterpeek. This standalone device, designed specifically for Twittering, mirroring our own obsession with the microblogging service and, if anything, we willed it into existence with our collective desires for always on Twitter. Does it work? Eh. Is it a good idea? Eh. Is it for us? Probably not, but what do I know?
The Font Kingdom: Search, Explore, Create, and Download Fonts for Free
Orli Yakuel Sat, 07 Nov 2009 16:07:20 -0000
Being a blogger, I often find design elements on the web for my posts or my blog in general. It's becoming a very common experience for bloggers to know a thing or two about web design. I'm guessing it is the web that taught us to be quasi-designers by offering us lots of easy-to-use tools that help us create just about everything we need: photo-editing, widgets, logos, buttons, and yes, fonts as well. Fonts are a big focus of the Web2.0 era—they are now bigger, cleaner and smoother, especially when it comes to logos. Can you imagine Techcrunch's logo looking like this? It's all dependent on font choice. (in case you were wondering BTW, Twitter's font is mostly Pico created by Maniackers Design) Regardless of the fact that the web makes it easy for everyone to be more creative (i.e., logo above), it becomes a paradise for designers themselves who seek new tools & inspiration. So whether you're a professional graphic designer, or an amateur web publisher this list of font tools might come in handy (eventually).
Skype Founders Assembling Killer Team For New Online Music Startup
Robin Wauters Sat, 07 Nov 2009 15:16:40 -0000
Now that they got what they wanted - a renewed stake and board representation in the Skype that will be spun off eBay soon - the Scandinavian duo Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis can divert more of their attention again to the latest Internet venture they're putting their weight behind: Rdio. The yet-to-launch digital music startup was first talked about publicly a couple of weeks ago in a New York Times article but we haven't heard any further information about the startup. I've been keeping busy this weekend doing some very basic research - I love you, Internet - about Rdio and discovered a couple of interesting details that have emerged on the Web since the stealth startup got its first dose of media attention.
Snoop Dogg, Entrepreneurship and Rajasthan
Vivek Wadhwa Sat, 07 Nov 2009 14:00:34 -0000
I'm in India this weekend with fellow TechCrunch/BusinessWeek writer Sarah Lacy. After we’re done with the elephant rides in Jaipur, we’re going to be meeting local tech startups. Then we head back to New Delhi to meet more aspiring entrepreneurs. Sarah is writing a book on how startup culture has gone global and I’m researching how R&D has globalized. It never ceases to amaze me how you can find brilliant entrepreneurs everywhere—whether in the middle of the Thar Desert in Rajasthan or Santiago Chile (where local entrepreneurs showed me life-sized holographic images projected through some hardware connected to their laptops, and software which can help monitor the operational efficiencies of department stores in California). The promise of these early ventures is always amazing and their enthusiasm infectious. Which brings me to Global Entrepreneurship Week. And Snoop Dogg. You are probably asking yourself, what the heck does the controversial and highly successful rapper have to do with entrepreneurship?
YouTube Is Falling Apart Again
Erick Schonfeld Sat, 07 Nov 2009 05:37:53 -0000
The ads are destroying YouTube. At least this one is. It is a video ad for sustainable energy company from Spain called Acciona. Yeah, I had never heard of them either. The video starts with this Euro-dude in a suit starting to blow up and crack apart like he's made from plaster. Halfway through, the actual video player crack in half, and all of the surrounding parts of the site shake and fall away, while an annoying voiceover is saying something about rebirth. I don't know, maybe it makes more sense in Spanish.
Marissa Mayer Chosen As A Glamour Magazine Woman Of The Year
Leena Rao Sat, 07 Nov 2009 04:30:59 -0000
Google's Vice President of Search Product and User Experience Marissa Mayer was recently profiled in a Vogue Magazine article that offered a in-depth glimpse into the exec's lifestyle, loves, career and fashion preferences. Now, Mayer has been named as one of Glamour Magazine's 2009 Women of the Year. Joining Mayer on the list are a variety of female powerhouses and icons including Maya Angelou, First Lady Michelle Obama, Susan Rice, Euna Lee and Laura Ling. Mayer has been frequently profiled in business and technology publications over the years, but it's also nice to see her achievements highlighted in magazines like Vogue and Glamour. The brainy Stanford-grad has been able to set an example for young women everywhere. As one of Google's early hires, she's now helping to lead product design for one of the world's most innovative companies. And she's only 34. What's not to love about a successful and geeky coder who also loves to wear Oscar de la Renta, Chanel and Armani?

Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability News - ENN

Clean Energy Legislation Will Boost US Manufacturing Jobs
dotdotdotdotdotdotdotdotdotdotdotdotdotdotdotdotdotdotdotdotdotdotdotdotdotdotdot Thu, 05 Nov 2009 10:21:00 -0500
U.S. clean energy legislation could help create 850,000 manufacturing jobs around the country, a report from a group representing business and environmental interests said on Wednesday.
Washington, Stop Dithering, US Goals on Climate Urgently Needed
dotdotdotdotdotdotdotdotdotdotdot Thu, 05 Nov 2009 05:47:00 -0500
As the last round of "intersessional" climate talks before Copenhagen opened today in Barcelona, all eyes were looking in the same direction they were when we left Bangkok three weeks earlier: at the United States. Without American numbers on mitigation (or emissions reductions) and finance (for developing nations to build their own clean energy economies, and also to adapt to the impacts of climate change), any real forward progress in the talks is just about impossible.
Ethiopian Rift Shows How Continents Can Split, Create New Ocean
dotdotdotdotdotdotdotdotdotdotdotdotdotdotdotdotdotdotdot Wed, 04 Nov 2009 08:10:00 -0500
A new study reported by the Addis Ababa University in Ethiopia and the University of Rochester sheds light on how the continents move, and oceans are created. In 2005, a gigantic, 35-mile-long rift broke open the desert ground in Ethiopia. At the time, some geologists believed the rift was the beginning of a new ocean as two parts of the African continent pulled apart, but the claim was controversial. Now, scientists from several countries have confirmed that the volcanic processes at work beneath the Ethiopian rift are nearly identical to those at the bottom of the world's oceans, and the rift is indeed likely the beginning of a new sea.

The Financial Page

James Surowiecki: Priced to Go
James Surowiecki Mon, 02 Nov 2009 05:00:00 -0000
In the spring of 1992, the airline industry was in dismal shape, debilitated by the recently ended recession and an overreliance on discounting. So American Airlines announced a new “value pricing” plan, which entailed cutting fares while replacing complex discounts with a simple, four-tier price system. It . . .
James Surowiecki: Why Banks Stay Big
James Surowiecki Mon, 26 Oct 2009 04:00:00 -0000
Before the financial crisis, the banking industry was too concentrated and clubby. And now? It’s even more so. In the midst of the crisis, the country’s four biggest banks—Citigroup, Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, and Wells Fargo—actually got bigger. Thanks primarily to . . .
James Surowiecki: Exit Through Lobby
James Surowiecki Mon, 12 Oct 2009 04:00:00 -0000
Resigning in protest is not in the American grain. Robert McNamara stuck around as Secretary of Defense even after he decided that the Vietnam War was a disaster; Colin Powell did the same during the Bush Administration’s push for war with Iraq; and in the lead-up to . . .

NYT > Your Money

Your Money: Money Issues That Can Test Even a Rock-Solid Marriage
By RON LIEBER Sat, 07 Nov 2009 06:24:16 -0000
Money may be the root of all evil, and in a marriage it can certainly be the seed of trouble. Here are five things couples should do to sidestep difficulties.
Patient Money: In Anxious Times, Medical Help for the Mind as Well as the Body
By LESLEY ALDERMAN Sat, 07 Nov 2009 06:37:28 -0000
A new law requires that next year big group plans provide the same level of care for mental health as for medical ones.
U.S. Unemployment Rate Hits 10.2%, Highest in 26 Years
By PETER S. GOODMAN Sat, 07 Nov 2009 06:23:04 -0000
The number of unemployed rose to 15.7 million in October, as 190,000 nonfarm jobs were lost, the government said, and economists do not expect relief until next year.

The Economist: The World Bank and the IMF

India's gold purchase: Adornment and investment
Thu, 05 Nov 2009 11:01:13 -0000
India is eager for the IMF’s bullionIF YOU count bangles, necklaces, anklets and other pieces of jewellery, India is the largest repository of gold in the world, according to the World Gold Council. Many Indians see gold as an investment as well as an adornment. India’s post office sells 24-carat gold coins, as small as 0.5 grams, to savers wary of fiat currencies or mutual funds. The latest big investor in the metal is the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). On November 3rd the central bank said it had bought 200 tonnes of gold from the IMF, a purchase that would have cost about $6.7 billion. The news pushed the price past $1,090 an ounce for the first time.The IMF’s gold holdings are less decorative than India’s, but also impressive: the third-biggest official stash in the world. Its sale to the RBI is part of a plan to offload 403.3 tonnes, or an eighth of its total. The proceeds will create an endowment to cover the fund’s operating expenses and help expand its lending. It is doing its best not to rock the market by selling first to central banks, in keeping with their agreement in August to sell no more than 2,000 tonnes over five years. But the gold market is now interested in how much central banks might buy, not how much they might sell. ...
The World Bank-IMF meetings: Money, votes and politics
Wed, 07 Oct 2009 07:39:57 -0000
Battles over money and power at the World Bank and IMF“WE ARE into the world of politics”, said the World Bank’s president, Robert Zoellick, at the two-day annual meetings of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, ending on Wednesday October 7th in Istanbul. Mr Zoellick was referring to the disagreements between richer and poorer countries over his institution’s pleas for more funding to cope with the aftermath of the financial crisis. But his statement held true for much of what went on at this year’s meetings. It was easy to reach broad agreement that it was too early for governments and central banks to begin winding down their big stimulus packages. But opinions diverged over the need to boost the funding of the world’s main financial institutions, and even more so when it came to discussing demands by big developing countries such as China and India for more voting power on their boards. ...
The role of emerging markets: Cosmetic surgery?
Thu, 01 Oct 2009 11:04:22 -0000
The face of global economic governance is changingSYMBOLISM or substance? The G20 meeting in Pittsburgh secured the place of emerging markets at the top table of global economic policy. “Bretton Woods is being overhauled before our eyes,” declared Robert Zoellick, head of the World Bank. The G20 leaders agreed to shift voting power substantially within the IMF towards “dynamic emerging markets and developing countries”, and endorsed similar reform at the World Bank. They also announced that the G20 itself will replace the G7, a rich-world club that will now concentrate mainly on security issues, as the primary forum for international economic co-operation. The Financial Stability Board, which is supposed to oversee the co-ordination of global financial regulation, has also expanded to include the G20’s emerging–market members. But how much clout the developing world will actually have remains unclear. ...

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