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, 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; wholesale payments and cross-border financing; 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, 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 multi-asset investment management solutions across equities, fixed income, alternatives, and money market funds to institutional clients and retail investors; and retirement products and services, brokerage, custody, trusts and estates, loans, mortgages, deposits, and investment management products. The company also provides ATM, online and mobile, and telephone banking services. JPMorgan Chase & Co. was founded in 1799 and is headquartered in New York, New York.
The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc., a financial institution, provides range of financial services for corporations, financial institutions, governments, and individuals worldwide. It operates through 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, as well as originates structured securities. Its Global Markets segment is involved in client execution activities for cash and derivative instruments; credit and interest rate products; and provision of equity intermediation and equity financing, clearing, settlement, and custody services, as well as mortgages, currencies, commodities, and equities related products. 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, 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, deposit taking, and lending; private banking; and unsecured loans, as well as accepts saving and time deposits. The company 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. Its Consumer Banking segment offers traditional and money market savings accounts, certificates of deposit 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 company's Global Wealth & Investment Management segment offers investment management, brokerage, banking, and trust and retirement products and services; and wealth management solutions, as well as customized solutions, including specialty asset management services. Its Global Banking segment provides lending products and services, including commercial loans, leases, commitment facilities, trade finance, and commercial real estate and asset-based lending; treasury solutions, such as treasury management, foreign exchange, and short-term investing options and merchant services; working capital management solutions; and debt and equity underwriting and distribution, and merger-related and other advisory services. The company's Global Markets segment offers market-making, financing, securities clearing, settlement, and custody services, as well as risk management products using interest rate, equity, credit, currency and commodity derivatives, foreign exchange, fixed-income, and mortgage-related products. As of April 15, 2021, it served approximately 66 million consumer and small business clients with approximately 4,300 retail financial centers; approximately 17,000 ATMs; and digital banking platforms with approximately 40 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, equity and fixed income research, corporate lending, investment banking and advisory, private banking, cash management, trade finance, and securities services to corporate, institutional, public sector, and high-net-worth clients. As of December 31, 2020, it operated 2,303 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 primarily in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Poland. 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., a financial services company, provides insurance, annuities, employee benefits, and asset management services 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 general and separate account, and synthetic guaranteed interest contracts, as well as private floating rate funding agreements. It also provides pension risk transfers, institutional income annuities, structured 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 personal lines of property and casualty insurance, including private passenger automobile, homeowners', and personal excess liability insurance. Further, it provides fixed and variable annuities, and pension products; accident and health products; regular savings products; whole and term life, endowments, universal and variable life, and group life products; credit insurance products; and protection against long-term health care services. 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 provides 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, dual 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 four segments: Advice & Wealth Management, Asset Management, Retirement & Protection Solutions, and Corporate & Other. The Advice & Wealth Management segment provides financial planning and advice; brokerage products and services for retail and institutional clients; discretionary and non-discretionary investment advisory accounts; mutual funds; insurance and annuities products; cash management and banking products; and face-amount certificates. The Asset Management segment offers investment management and advice, and investment products to retail, high net worth, and institutional clients through unaffiliated third-party financial institutions and institutional sales force. This segment 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 and infrastructure funds. The Retirement & Protection Solutions segment provides variable annuity products to individual clients, as well as life and DI insurance products to retail clients. 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, casualty, and crisis management insurance products; commercial, industrial, and energy-related property insurance; and aerospace, political risk, trade credit, portfolio solutions, crop, and marine insurance. It also provides professional liability insurance products for a range of businesses and risks, including directors and officers, 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, group and individual annuities, and investment products, and financial planning and advisory services; plan administrative and compliance services; and term life and universal life insurance. It 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, and broker-dealers. 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 for institutional investor and broker-dealer firms worldwide. It offers the access to global liquidity in U.S. investment-grade bonds, U.S. high-yield bonds, U.S. Treasuries, municipal bonds, emerging market debt, Eurobonds, 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 incorporated 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 Index, Analytics, and All Other segments. The Index segment primarily provides indexes for use in various areas of the investment process, including indexed product creation, such as ETFs, mutual funds, annuities, futures, options, structured products, over-the-counter derivatives; performance benchmarking; portfolio construction and rebalancing; and asset allocation, as well as licenses GICS and GICS Direct. 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; various managed services, including consolidation of client portfolio data from various sources, review and reconciliation of input data and results, and customized reporting; and HedgePlatform to measure, evaluate, and monitor the risk of hedge fund investments. The All Other ? ESG segment provides products and services that help institutional investors understand how environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors impact the long-term risk and opportunities in financial markets; and data and rating products for use in the construction of equity and fixed income indexes and issue index-based investment products, as well as manage, measure, and report on ESG mandates. The All Other ? Real Estate segment includes research, reporting, market data, and benchmarking offerings that provide real estate performance analytics for funds, investors, and managers; and business intelligence to real estate owners, managers, developers, and brokers. It serves asset owners and managers, financial intermediaries, 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 that 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; accounts payable expense management products and services; and travel 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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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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