Financial services can basically involve businesses whose core function are to deal with money, and comprises of areas like investment banking, real estate brokering, insurance, accountancy, and so on. As pointed out by Scott Tominaga in the simplest terms, the financial services sector can be considered to include organizations that offer financial services to people and corporations. The financial services industry is among the most vital sectors of the economy, and tends to lead the work in terms of equity market capitalization and earnings. Even though large conglomerates majorly dominate this sector, it also includes a wide range of smaller companies.

The financial services sector is considered to be the key driver of the economy of any sector. It offers free-flow of capital and liquidity in the marketplace, and helps companies to better manage risk. Scott Tominaga additionally points out that unlike what most people believe, financial service companies do not just feature simply mathematics graduates and accountants. These companies have a lot of needs related to back office, accounting, compliance, administration, IT, and so on.  In the contemporary world, they especially require professionals specializing in working with financial data such as stock market information and credit rating, and have the capacity to provide solutions for complying with financial regulations. All of these functions help a financial service company to operate in a successful manner.

Here are some of the important areas of work in the financial services sector as underlined by Scott Tominaga :

• Regulation and compliance: All financial companies need to obey strict regulations that are generally devised by various regulatory agencies.  These regulations may change or get updated at any point in time, and hence a financial service company has to constantly strive to keep up with laws, taxation, policy changes, and developments.  Typically, compliance officers are appointed in financial service firms to make sure that the company is obeying to all the relevant regulations, as well as submit the needed reports to the regulators. These professionals need to both understand and interpret the constantly-changing rules pertaining to the industry.
• Technology: Almost all modern companies tend to leverage technology to improve their operations and productivity, and financial service firms are no different. However, it is important to note that there are certain specialized hardware and software needed by financial companies that have little to no use in many of the other sectors. Hence, to work in the technology department of these companies, people have to get training in learning such specialized software.
• Analysis: Analysts working in financial services companies have to organize and evaluate data related to finance, and produce real-time reports for their discerning clients. The analysis of data helps these companies and their clients to make better financial decisions.

In addition to the areas mentioned in the above points, the professionals working in the back and middle office, as well as administrative departments of financial service companies, also have quite a crucial role to play in its smooth operations.