What is meant by the term financial industry?

I want to see banks within a broader context of the whole financial industry. What kinds of businesses are part of the financial industry?

Here is some helpful info from Wikipedia: "[commerical] banks, investment banks, insurance companies, credit card companies and stock brokerages, are examples of the types of firms comprising the industry, which provides a variety of money and investment and related services. Financial services is the largest industry (or industry category) in the world, in terms of earnings; as of 2004, the industry represents 20% of the market capitalization of the S&P 500." To put that in context, the computer hardware & software industry represents 15.30% and the healthcare industry represents 13.40% of market capitilization (a term I don't really understand yet.)

The Gramm Leach Bliley Act of the late 1990s, which I'll write more about later, made it possible for companies to combine financial services. Before this act passed, a commercial bank had to be separate from an investment bank which had to be separate from an insurance agency, etc. Now they can be housed under one business --under the rubric of financial services.

What percent of the financial services industry is commercial banking? I have a feeling it's a small part of this whole system of money lending...How can I find this out?

Here are some more helpful definitions from Wikipedia: "A commercial bank is what is commonly considered a 'bank'. The term 'commercial' is used to distinguish it from an 'investment bank', a type of financial services entity which, instead of lending money directly to a business, helps businesses raise money from other firms in the form of bonds (debt) or stock (equity)."

More: "Investment banks...underwrite debt and equity, assist company deals (advisory services, underwriting and advisory fees), and restructure debt into structured finance products." Where do investment banks get their money?

Another interested fact: "Citigroup is the largest issuer of bank cards, with 150 million cards issued at the end of 2004." Note to self: don't get a Citigroup credit card. Wouldnt it be super cool to create a socially responsible credit card company? How do credit card companies work? What would a socially responsible one look like --man, that would be cool. Charge a whole lot less interest --saying it is ethically incorrect to charge high interest. What is the typical credit card interest rate these days, and how does that compare to a bank loan interest rate?

Under investment services there are a whole bunch of words I don't yet understand:

"Asset management, [which] is the term usually given to describe companies which run mutual funds."

"Custody services and securities processing is a kind of 'back-office' administration for financial services. Assets under custody in the world was estimated to $65 trillion at the end of 2004..."

"Insurance brokers shop for insurance (generally corporate property and casualty insurance) on behalf of customers."

"Stock brokers assist people in investing, online only companies are called 'discount brokerages', companies with a branch presence are called 'full service brokerages' or 'private client services."

Surely subprime lending businesses are considered part of the financial services industry. What category do they fit under?

One way I can get a better sense of financial services is to look at the Citigroup products webpage and see what services they offer:

Banking (accounts and loans like mortgages)/ credit card/ investing and asset management/ bill payment services (they can collect fees on this)/ services for small businesses (brokerage stuff, trade, and other things)/ investment banking services (all these global words like global futures)/ assets management/ funds and securities (?)/ and treasury and cash management (?)

Whew! And I'm sure there is more, since they probably own other financial services companies not listed explicitly on the Citigroup site.

Incidentally, Citigroup is the second largest financial service companies in the world. The largest is Mizuho Holdings, Inc. (based in Japan), and the third largest is Deutsche Bank (operating in Europe, Asia, and the US.)

One other bit of info, not precisely related to the financial services industry, for developing my financial services literacy, specifically about bank profit making--this is from a web page entitled, "The Banking Industry."

Turns out fees are a safer way for banks to make money (than going with the ups and downs of the interest rate.) So, "many bank financial statements will break up the revenue figures into fee-based (or non interest) and non-fee (interest) generated revenue."