Financial Institutions: Banks, Trusts, Insurance & More - Essay Sample

Introduction

Financial institutions are organizations that deal with financial and monetary transactions services. They include deposits, loans, investments, and also currency exchange. Consequently, these institutions basically encompass a wide range of commercial activities within the financial services field such as banks, trust organizations, insurance institutions, brokerage entities, and investment people (Kagitci & Spiridon, 2014). Virtually, every individual in developed economies has an ongoing or at least periodic want for financial organization services. It is important to note that these financial institutions have a common function in serving and doing business transactions with their customers and are majorly involved in offering services, such as saving, spending, money investing or lending (Kagitci & Spiridon, 2014). These transactions are often channelled through theses financial intermediately in either way. The primary purpose of this work is to compare and contrast different commercial organizations based on their business operations.

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Different financial institutions dealing with financial and monetary transactions offer various services based on the fundamental purpose for which they were formed. For instance, commercial banks offer services like account services, accepting deposits, personal savings services, necessary financial products like mortgage loans and saving accounts to small business and individuals, among others. These services attract most people who eventually do business with commercial banks more than they can do with investments banks and insurance companies which do not offer such services. Banks act as agents who pay via credit cards, currency exchange, and wire transfer whereas investment banks specifically provide services aimed at facilitating business operations which include equity offering, capital expenditure in the financing, and initial public offering among others.

Investment institutions are generally engaged in brokerage services for investors, loan acquisitions, management of mergers, and another corporate restructuring. Finally, they act as markers for trading exchange; in this regard investment companies play a similar role same to most banks. Banks offer a safe and convenient means of paying by way of bank drafts, through the current account or via a bill of exchange and bank transfer which is opposed to investment companies.

Whereas Insurance companies are among the most common none banking financial institutions in a similar list, they give insurance services both for corporations and individuals. Their primary attributes are assets protections against any risk incurred due to financing. On the other hand, insurance companies usually secure their clients which is one of the most valuable essential services that facilitate both individual and corporate investments for economic growth. Consequently, Banks enjoy prerogative authority in advising on investments dealing with finance issues on the creditworthiness of their clients both local and abroad. On the other hand, Brokerages and Investment companies are institutions that deal with services like an exchange, trade, mutual funds and Fidelity Investments. They offer entry to investment products that can vary from bonds and stocks from top to lowest in alternative investments, and this may include private equity investments and hedge funds.

Financial Institutions as Reviewed By Its Audience

Financial organizations need to ensure that they understand the need and behaviour of their target audience; therefore it is essential for a company to ensure that they deeply understand their customer's taste in a manner likely to sustain them. For the institution to define and identify their target market, there usually must be a proper laid down procedures and strategy that helps an organization to identifies their current clients, and why do they buy from them and who are they. The company must research common interests or similarities and must outline the type of character that gives the most return to the enterprise. Therefore, an organization must work hard to realize an accurate data and matrix to help them answer their question on who their target audience, and for the purposes of identifying their most target market that may walk the organization towards its set goals and obligations.

Problem Statement

According to Kagitci and Spiridon (2014), customers are totally immersed in the lifestyle of digital technology which happens typically whether they are checking their account balance or ordering chequebook; nevertheless, customers go for the banks that operate with them through their mobile devices and online services. As a result, most financial institutions have resorted to digital platforms to meet the ever rapidly growing demand for purposes of safety, convenience and flexibility in banking from their retail client (Cranor at al., 2013). Consequently, mobile phones have become a common hand tool in financial institutions, and this has prompted banks to introduced mobile platform technology for banking services to serve their clients. It is important to note that despite the convenience that has been necessitated by technology, there are grey areas that need to be addressed. These issues are like hacking of financial institutions which are on the rise. Therefore, despite the revolution that technology has brought in the financial sector, challenges like hacking, among others, need to be addressed to avoid loss of customer resources and confidential information.

Research Methodology Employed

Generally, the type of research methodology employed in this research was secondary data collection. The secondary data collection involved gathering information from library sources and the internet. This type of methodology was preferred because it is cheap and not time-consuming as opposed to primary data collection, which is a bit cumbersome in that it involves going to the field to interview respondents.

Finding and Recommendations

The findings of this study indicate that the financial services needed by financial organization's clients in most sectors have changed in the last decade, particularly due to technological advancement that the world is experiencing currently. Based on research reports and findings by various scholars indicate the majority of respondents interviewed about financial institutions showed satisfaction from the existing services and products (Cranor at al., 2013). Consequently, some of the demographic suggested that products and services require a greater application of marketing techniques and strategies to improve the quality of services and sustainable growth.

Conclusions and Recommendation for Future Research

Conclusions

Client's services that are attached to finance are changing due to their needs, wants, desires, problems, expectations. Therefore financial service providers must acknowledge who their clients are, their preferences, the reason why they buy, and who makes the decision. Finally, they also need to know how the clients adopt service and products while in conformity with this shifts, in that they must be changing technological application in the financial training, services, images and attitudes, marketing strategies and patterns of organization and control.

Recommendations for Further Research

It is recommendable that financial institutions should carry out frequent client surveys and meetings to assess the changing dynamics of clients. On the other side, financial institutions must design products and services to suit the need for changes better, and quality service, Moreover, with the currently acquired technology banks must launch different value-added products and services that blend with the current ones to allow the financial institutions to adjust numerous financial services all under one roof (Pliha, 2008). Consequently, organizations dealing with financial services and marketing researchers need to focus on the client's needs, attitudes, values, and behaviours. Client research shall help in the understanding and anticipating of client needs that may be achieved via differentiation or product development.

References

Cranor, L. F., Idouchi, K., Leon, P. G., Sleeper, M., & Ur, B. (2013, June). Are they actually any different? Comparing thousands of financial institutions' privacy practices. In Proc. WEIS (Vol. 13).

Kagitci, M., & Spiridon, O. G. (2014). The Conflict of Interest and the Influence on the Financial Statements of A Company. Sea: Practical Application of Science, 2(3)

Pliha, R. K. (2008). U.S. Patent Application No. 11/934,623