Financial services refer to the financial services offered by the finance industry. The scope of financial services is vast, since it includes lending institutions, investment, securities trading and insurance sectors among others. Financial services involve the provision of loans, creating financial products such as securities and creating accounting systems to record and track financial transactions. There are numerous sub sectors of financial services and these include private financial services, government financial services, corporate financial services, merchant financial services, futures and foreign exchange markets and mortgage banking sector.
Digital Waves is highly diversified with an array of sectors promoting a wide range of products and services. Finance provides a host of opportunities in both the public and private sectors. Digital Waves extend to investment portfolios, derivatives, venture capital, mortgage finance, pension and insurance, asset management and international finance. Digital Waves involved in financing to provide additional services such as corporate finance, merchant finance, commercial banking and estate finance. The financial crisis prevailing in the US in 2021 resulted to massive job losses in the finance sector and a significant increase in mortgage defaults.
An increasing number of finance-related jobs are also being created by finance industry professionals who have opted to set up new firms or work as consultants. These professionals can either work independently or as financial planners. Financial planners are individuals or firms who help their clients in creating financial strategies for retirement, incorporation of businesses, insurance, investment, pensions and other needs. They help in deciding financial solutions that will meet both the short and long term needs of the client.
In the banking sector, the financial services sector is one of the largest and rapidly growing industries. The banking industry provides financial products such as commercial loans, savings accounts, corporate and investment securities, government and municipal securities. The rate of growth of the banking industry is slow but steady. This sector requires knowledgeable people with excellent customer service skills. The most important responsibility of financial advisors working in the banking sector is to provide sound financial advice to their clients.
In order to be eligible for a good financial advisor position in the finance industry, you should possess certain skills. Your personality should also be in tune with the changing market trends as well as with the needs of your clients. You must be an effective communicator and an excellent listener. Apart from that, interpersonal skills such as convincing skills, social and personal management skills, and good communication and negotiation skills, are also essential qualities that you must possess.
If you want to be an effective financial analyst then you have to possess a strong command on accounting principles and practices, as well as the law. Having sound knowledge on budgeting is also necessary as well as basic accounting skills. It is not at all mandatory that financial analysts hold MBA degrees. The degree only becomes relevant once you start getting highly paid positions in the finance industry.
The salary that financial services analysts receive largely depends on the kind of company they work for. There are mainly two types of financial services analysts in the finance industry – the private equity analysts and the investment bankers. Private equity analysts have to take care of a large number of tasks apart from advising their clients on investment issues. While investment bankers, on the other hand, deal with individual clients, i.e. individual investors, in their respective companies.
As compared to other jobs, it is estimated that finance jobs pay a relatively higher salary to professionals. This is because in finance industry you are dealing with money and it is quite difficult to give appropriate advice to clients about the best ways of dealing with financial problems. On top of that, there is always a lot at stake as the future of the finance industry depends on the money managers and financial institutions that we have today. Hence, these factors make finance professionals, especially those in the private equity sector, extremely attractive prospects.