Financial stocks encompass more than only Wall Street. This sector touches many aspects of a consumer’s economic life, from credit cards to mortgages, including the insurance on your new home. A strong financial sector is indicative of a healthy economy. But these stocks come with unique risks.
The financial sector is one of 11 stock market sectors and plays a crucial role in a healthy economy. This sector includes companies that provide financial goods and services, like mortgage loans and insurance policies, to commercial and retail customers.
What subcategories does it include?
Financial stocks can be classified by the following subcategories:
Banking. Diversified and regional banks that hold financial assets for customers and lend to small and medium corporations.
Capital markets. Companies that trade securities, like stocks and bonds.
Consumer finance. Providers of consumer financing and other services, including credit cards, personal loans and car leases.
Diversified financial services. Those that offer a range of products and services, such as banking, insurance and student loans.
Insurance. This industry encompasses insurance policies, from life and health insurance to property and car protection.
Thrifts and mortgage finance. Financial institutions that primarily offer savings accounts and originate residential mortgages.
How to invest in the financial sector
Invest in the financial sector by buying individual stocks or exchange-traded funds (ETFs). When you purchase a stock, you get shares of that company. Stocks have fewer fees but are riskier than ETFs. If you take the ETF path, you’ll get a basket of financial stocks. You’ll probably see higher fees, but it’ll lower your exposure risk.
Here’s an overview of how to start investing:
Choose a brokerage. Explore brokerage platforms to pick a firm that best fits your financial goals.
Open an account. Most brokerage firms let you open an account online. Some may require a deposit to get started, while others allow you to add money when you’re ready to begin investing.
Research securities. Use your firm’s research tools to browse different stocks and ETFs.
Place an order. When you’re ready to start investing, place an order to buy your security.
Monitor your portfolio. Log into your account to track your securities.
What stocks are in the financial sector?
Select a company to learn more about what they do and how their stock performs, including market capitalization, the price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio, price/earnings-to-growth (PEG) ratio and dividend yield. While this list includes a selection of the most well-known and popular stocks, it doesn't include every stock available.
Company summary
JPMorgan Chase & Co. operates as a financial services company worldwide. It operates in four segments: Consumer & Community Banking (CCB), Corporate & Investment Bank (CIB), Commercial Banking (CB), and Asset & Wealth Management (AWM). The CCB segment offers deposit and investment products and services to consumers; lending, deposit, and cash management and payment solutions to small businesses; mortgage origination and servicing activities; residential mortgages and home equity loans; and credit card, payment processing, auto loan, and leasing services. The CIB segment provides investment banking products and services, including corporate strategy and structure advisory, and equity and debt markets capital-raising services, as well as loan origination and syndication; cash management and liquidity solutions; and cash securities and derivative instruments, risk management solutions, prime brokerage, and research. This segment also offers securities services, including custody, fund accounting and administration, and securities lending products for asset managers, insurance companies, and public and private investment funds. The CB segment provides financial solutions, including lending, treasury, investment banking, and asset management to small business, large and midsized corporations, local governments, and nonprofit clients; and commercial real estate banking services to investors, developers, and owners of multifamily, as well as to office, retail, industrial, and affordable housing properties. The AWM segment offers investment and wealth management services across equities, fixed income, alternatives, and money market fund asset classes; multi-asset investment management services; retirement products and services; and brokerage and banking services. The company also provides ATM, online and mobile, and telephone banking services. The company was founded in 1799 and is headquartered in New York, New York.
The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. operates as an investment banking, securities, and investment management company worldwide. It operates in four segments: Investment Banking, Global Markets, Asset Management, and Consumer & Wealth Management. The company's Investment Banking segment provides financial advisory services, including strategic advisory assignments related to mergers and acquisitions, divestitures, corporate defense activities, restructurings, and spin-offs; and middle-market lending, relationship lending, and acquisition financing, as well as transaction banking services. This segment also offers underwriting services, such as equity underwriting for common and preferred stock and convertible and exchangeable securities; and debt underwriting for various types of debt instruments, including investment-grade and high-yield debt, bank and bridge loans, and emerging- and growth-market debt. Its Global Markets segment is involved in client execution activities for cash and derivative instruments; credit products; mortgages; currencies; commodities; and equities; and provision of equity intermediation, and equity financing services, as well as offers clearing, settlement and custody services. The company's Asset Management segment manages assets across various asset classes, including equity, fixed income, hedge funds, credit funds, private equity, real estate, currencies, and commodities; and provides customized investment advisory solutions, and financing services, as well as invests in corporate, real estate, and infrastructure entities. Its Consumer & Wealth Management segment offers wealth advisory and banking services, including financial planning, investment management, and lending; private banking and lending services; unsecured loans; and saving and time deposits. The company serves corporations, financial institutions, governments, and individuals. The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. was founded in 1869 and is headquartered in New York, New York.
Bank of America Corporation, through its subsidiaries, provides banking and financial products and services for individual consumers, small- and middle-market businesses, institutional investors, large corporations, and governments worldwide. It operates in Consumer Banking, Global Wealth & Investment Management (GWIM), Global Banking, and Global Markets segments. The Consumer Banking segment offers traditional and money market savings accounts, CDs and IRAs, noninterest- and interest-bearing checking accounts, and investment accounts and products; and credit and debit cards, residential mortgages, and home equity loans, as well as direct and indirect loans, such as automotive, recreational vehicle, and consumer personal loans. The GWIM segment offers investment management, brokerage, banking, and trust and retirement products; and wealth management solutions, as well as customized solutions, including specialty asset management services. The Global Banking segment provides lending products and services, including commercial loans, leases, commitment facilities, trade finance, and real estate and asset-based lending; treasury solutions, such as treasury management, foreign exchange, and short-term investing options; working capital management solutions; and debt and equity underwriting and distribution, and merger-related and other advisory services. The Global Markets segment offers market-making, financing, securities clearing, settlement, and custody services, as well as risk management, fixed-income, and mortgage-related products. As of May 7, 2020, it served approximately 66 million consumer and small business clients with approximately 4,300 retail financial centers; approximately 16,900 ATMs; and digital banking platforms with approximately 39 million active users. The company was founded in 1784 and is headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Citigroup Inc., a diversified financial services holding company, provides various financial products and services to consumers, corporations, governments, and institutions in North America, Latin America, Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. The company operates in two segments, Global Consumer Banking (GCB) and Institutional Clients Group (ICG). The GCB segment offers traditional banking services to retail customers through retail banking, Citi-branded cards, and Citi retail services. It also provides various banking, credit card lending, and investment services through a network of local branches, offices, and electronic delivery systems. The ICG segment offers wholesale banking products and services, including fixed income and equity sales and trading, foreign exchange, prime brokerage, derivative services, equity and fixed income research, corporate lending, investment banking and advisory services, private banking, cash management, trade finance, and securities services to corporate, institutional, public sector, and high-net-worth clients. As of December 31, 2019, it operated 2,348 branches primarily in the United States, Mexico, and Asia. Citigroup Inc. was founded in 1812 and is headquartered in New York, New York.
Unum Group, together with its subsidiaries, provides financial protection benefit solutions in the United States, the United Kingdom, Poland, and internationally. It operates through Unum US, Unum International, Colonial Life, and Closed Block segments. The company offers group long-term and short-term disability, group life, and accidental death and dismemberment products; supplemental and voluntary products, such as individual disability, voluntary benefits, and dental and vision products; and accident, sickness, disability, life, and cancer and critical illness products. It also provides group pension, individual life and corporate-owned life insurance, reinsurance pools and management operations, and other products. The company sells its products primarily to employers for the benefit of employees. Unum Group sells its products through field sales personnel, independent brokers, and consultants, as well as independent contractor agency sales force. The company was founded in 1848 and is based in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
MetLife, Inc. engages in the insurance, annuities, employee benefits, and asset management businesses worldwide. It operates through five segments: U.S.; Asia; Latin America; Europe, the Middle East and Africa; and MetLife Holdings. The company offers life, dental, group short-and long-term disability, individual disability, accidental death and dismemberment, vision, and accident and health coverages, as well as prepaid legal plans; administrative services-only arrangements to employers; and stable value products, including general and separate account guaranteed interest contracts, and private floating rate funding agreements. It also provides pension risk transfers, institutional income annuities, tort settlements, and capital markets investment products; and other products and services, such as life insurance products and funding agreements for funding postretirement benefits, as well as company, bank, or trust-owned life insurance used to finance nonqualified benefit programs for executives. In addition, the company offers automobile, homeowners', and personal excess liability insurance products. Further, it provides fixed annuities and pension products; medical and credit insurance products; variable, universal, term, endowment, and whole life insurance products; variable, and fixed and indexed-linked annuities; and protection against long-term health care services. The company serves individuals, corporations and their employees, and other institutions and their members through independent agents, property and casualty specialists, sales forces, sales teams and relationship managers, and sponsoring organizations and affinity groups, as well as through career and independent agencies, bancassurance, direct marketing and e-commerce, brokers, and other third-party distribution channels. MetLife, Inc. was founded in 1863 and is headquartered in New York, New York.
Synchrony Financial operates as a consumer financial services company in the United States. It delivers a range of specialized financing programs and consumer banking products to digital, retail, home, auto, travel, health, and pet industries. The company also offers private label credit cards, dual cards, general purpose co-branded credit cards, and small and medium-sized business credit products; and promotional financing for consumer purchases, such as private label credit cards and installment loans. In addition, it provides promotional financing to consumers for health, veterinary and personal care procedures, and services and products, such as dental, vision, audiology, and cosmetic; debt cancellation products; and deposit products, including certificates of deposit, individual retirement accounts, money market accounts, and savings accounts to retail and commercial customers, as well as accepts deposits through third-party securities brokerage firms. The company offers its credit products through programs established with a group of national and regional retailers, local merchants, manufacturers, buying groups, industry associations, and healthcare service providers; and deposit products through various channels, such as digital and print. Synchrony Financial was incorporated in 2003 and is headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut.
Ameriprise Financial, Inc., through its subsidiaries, provides various financial products and services to individual and institutional clients in the United States and internationally. It operates through five segments: Advice & Wealth Management, Asset Management, Annuities, Protection, and Corporate & Other. The Advice & Wealth Management segment provides financial planning and advice, as well as full-service brokerage services primarily to retail clients through its advisors. The Asset Management segment offers investment management, advice, and investment products to retail, high net worth, and institutional clients through unaffiliated third party financial institutions and institutional sales force. Its products also include U.S. mutual funds and their non-U.S. equivalents, exchange-traded funds, variable product funds underlying insurance, and annuity separate accounts; and institutional asset management products, such as traditional asset classes, separately managed accounts, individually managed accounts, collateralized loan obligations, hedge funds, collective funds, and property funds. The Annuities segment provides variable and fixed annuity products to individual clients through affiliated and unaffiliated advisors, and financial institutions. The Protection segment offers variable and fixed annuity products to address the protection and risk management needs of retail clients, including life and disability income insurance. The Corporate & Other segment consist of long term care business, net investment income or loss on corporate level assets. The company was formerly known as American Express Financial Corporation and changed its name to Ameriprise Financial, Inc. in September 2005. Ameriprise Financial, Inc. was founded in 1894 and is headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
American International Group, Inc. provides insurance products for commercial, institutional, and individual customers in North America and internationally. The company's General Insurance segment offers general liability, environmental, commercial automobile liability, workers' compensation, excess casualty, and crisis management insurance products, as well as various risk-sharing and other customized structured programs; commercial, industrial, and energy-related property insurance; and aerospace, political risk, trade credit, portfolio solutions, surety, crop, and marine insurance. It also provides professional liability insurance products for a range of businesses and risks, including directors and officer's liability, mergers and acquisitions, fidelity, employment practices, fiduciary liability, cyber risk, kidnap and ransom, and errors and omissions insurance. In addition, this segment offers personal auto and property insurance, voluntary and sponsor-paid personal accident, and supplemental health products; extended warranty insurance products; and travel insurance products. Its Life and Retirement segment offers variable annuities, fixed index and fixed annuities, and retail mutual funds; group mutual funds, individual annuity and investment products, and financial planning and advisory services; and term life and universal life insurance. This segment also provides stable value wrap products, and structured settlement and pension risk transfer annuities; and corporate- and bank-owned life insurance and guaranteed investment contracts. This segment sells its products through independent marketing organizations, independent insurance agents, financial advisors, direct marketing, banks, wirehouses, and broker-dealers. The company's Legacy Portfolio segment offers legacy insurance products. American International Group, Inc. was founded in 1919 and is headquartered in New York, New York.
MarketAxess Holdings Inc., together with its subsidiaries, operates an electronic trading platform that enables fixed-income market participants to trade corporate bonds and other types of fixed-income instruments worldwide. It offers institutional investor and broker-dealer firms the access to global liquidity in U.S. investment-grade corporate bonds, emerging markets and high-yield bonds, Eurobonds, U.S. agency bonds, municipal bonds, leveraged loans, and other fixed-income securities. The company, through its Open Trading protocols, executes bond trades between and among institutional investor and broker-dealer clients in an all-to-all anonymous trading environment for corporate bonds. It also offers trading-related products and services, including Composite+ pricing and other market data products to assist clients with trading decisions; auto-execution and other execution services for clients requiring specialized workflow solutions; connectivity solutions that facilitate straight-through processing; and technology services to optimize trading environments. In addition, the company offers a range of pre-and post-trade services, such as trade matching, trade publication, regulatory transaction reporting, and market and reference data across a range of fixed-income and other products. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. was founded in 2000 and is headquartered in New York, New York.
MSCI Inc., together with its subsidiaries, provides investment decision support tools for the clients to manage their investment processes worldwide. The company operates through four segments: Index, Analytics, ESG, and Real Estate. The Index segment primarily provides equity indexes for use in various areas of the investment process, including index-linked product creation and performance benchmarking, as well as portfolio construction and rebalancing, broker-dealer structured products, and asset allocation. The Analytics segment offers risk management, performance attribution and portfolio management content, applications, and services that provide clients with an integrated view of risk and return, and an analysis of market, credit, liquidity, and counterparty risk across various asset classes, spanning short, medium, and long-term time horizons; and various managed services for clients such as consolidation of client portfolio data from various sources, review and reconciliation of input data and results, and customized reporting consultants and investors in hedge funds. The ESG segment provides products and services that help institutional investors understand how environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors impact the long-term risk of their investments; and data and ratings products for use in the construction of equity and fixed income indexes to help institutional investors benchmark ESG investment performance and issue index-based investment products, as well as manage, measure, and report on ESG mandates. The Real Estate segment offers real estate performance analysis for funds, investors, and managers. This segment provides products and services that include research, reporting, market data, and benchmarking; and business intelligence to real estate owners, managers, developers, and brokers. The company serves asset owners and managers, banks, and wealth managers. MSCI Inc. was founded in 1998 and is headquartered in New York, New York.
S&P Global Inc., together with its subsidiaries, provides ratings, benchmarks, analytics, and data to the capital and commodity markets worldwide. The company operates through four segments: S&P Global Ratings (Ratings), S&P Global Market Intelligence (Market Intelligence), S&P Global Platts (Platts), and S&P Dow Jones Indices (Indices). The Ratings segment offers credit ratings, research, and analytics to investors, corporations, governments, municipalities, commercial and investment banks, insurance companies, asset managers, and other debt issuers. The Market Intelligence segment provides multi-asset-class data, research, and analytical capabilities, which integrate cross-asset analytics and desktop services to investment managers, investment banks, private equity firms, insurance companies, commercial banks, corporations, professional services firms, government agencies, and regulators. The Platts segment offers essential price data, analytics, and industry insights for the commodity and energy markets. It serves producers, traders, and intermediaries within the energy, petrochemicals, metals, and agriculture markets. The Indices segment provides index that maintains various valuation and index benchmarks for investment advisors, wealth managers, and institutional investors. The company also offers analytics, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and data visualization systems to Wall Street's premier global banks and investment institutions, as well as the National Security community; subscription and custom reports on bank deposits, loans, fees and other product data to the financial services industry; and insights on global supply chains. The company was formerly known as McGraw Hill Financial, Inc. and changed its name to S&P Global Inc. in April 2016. S&P Global Inc. was founded in 1860 and is headquartered in New York, New York.
American Express Company, together with its subsidiaries, provides charge and credit payment card products, and travel-related services worldwide. The company operates through three segments: Global Consumer Services Group, Global Commercial Services, and Global Merchant and Network Services. Its products and services include payment and financing products; network services; expense management products and services; and lifestyle services. The company's products and services also comprise merchant acquisition and processing, servicing and settlement, point-of-sale marketing, and information products and services for merchants; and fraud prevention services, as well as the design and operation of customer loyalty programs. It sells its products and services to consumers, small businesses, mid-sized companies, and large corporations through mobile and online applications, third-party vendors and business partners, direct mail, telephone, in-house sales teams, and direct response advertising. American Express Company was founded in 1850 and is headquartered in New York, New York.
The graph below tracks the Financial Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLF). Tracking ETF performance is one way to measure how a stock sector as a whole is doing.
Why invest in the financial sector?
The financial sector may be an attractive long-term investment because of its potential for higher returns to help you stay ahead of inflation. For example, the S&P 500 Financials Index’s returned 32.1% in 2019, compared to the Federal Reserve’s estimated inflation rate of 2%.
Long-term trends also support growth in the financial sector. When the sector is strong, the economy thrives, which can lead to higher incomes for consumers and bigger profit margins for companies. As people accumulate wealth, they need a way to manage their funds and plan for retirement.
Another attractive characteristic of financial stocks is their high dividend yield. The sector currently has a 4.19% dividend yield, compared to the S&P 500’s modest 1.96%.
What unique risks does the financial sector face?
The financial sector comes with considerable challenges and risks.
Regulation. Government red tape and legislative compliance can be a burden on companies, decreasing profit.
Drastic rise in interest rates. When rates rise, lenders generally make more money on the credit they issue to borrowers. But if the Federal Reserve and banks raise interest rates before the economy is ready to adjust to the higher cost of borrowing, demand could drop and potentially trigger a recession. A weak economy can be detrimental to financial stocks.
Litigation. Businesses in the financial sector spend a lot on legal proceedings, which can impact profitability and share prices.
Weakening economy. Financial stocks are extremely sensitive to changes in the economy.
Debt liability. Many financial stocks come with some credit exposure risk. During an economic downturn, borrowers may default on their credit cards and loans, leaving some lenders with a mountain of debt.
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In order to purchase stocks or ETFs, you’ll need a brokerage account. Compare your options using the table below to find the best fit.
Disclaimer: The value of any investment can go up or down depending on news, trends and market conditions. We are not investment advisers, so do your own due diligence to understand the risks before you invest.
Bottom line
The financial sector may be a good choice as a long-term investment in a healthy economy because of its generous dividends and long-term growth potential. But keep in mind that it’s one of the most volatile sectors of the stock market and comes with inherent risks.
REITs are not included in the financial sector. REITs left the category in 2016 to form its new, separate sector of the stock market.
Financial stocks are cyclical — their performance is generally tied to the health of the economy, which makes them vulnerable to the ups and downs of the business cycle.
Low-interest rates attract more borrowers, which can lead to more capital projects, investments and more economic growth. Higher interest rates translate to more banking profit but may discourage spending.
Kimberly Ellis is a writer at Finder. She hails from New York City with a BA from Queens College and a New York State teaching certificate. After teaching in both public and private schools, Kimberly decided to take the world by storm and dive into the media industry — where she covers everything from home loans and investing to K–12 education and shopping. She’s also an aspiring polyglot, always in a book and forever on the hunt for the perfect classic red lipstick.
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