In financial economics, a financial institution is an institution that provides financial services for its clients or members. Probably the most important financial service provided by financial institutions is acting as financial intermediaries. Most financial institutions are highly regulated by government bodies. Broadly speaking, there are three major types of financial institution[1]:

1. Deposit-taking institutions that accept and manage deposits and make loans (this category includes banks, credit unions, trust companies, and mortgage loan companies); 2. Insurance companies and pension funds; and 3. Brokers, underwriters and investment funds.

Financial institutions provide service as intermediaries of the capital and debt markets. They are responsible for transferring funds from investors to companies, in need of those funds. The presence of financial institutions facilitate the flow of money through the economy. To do so, savings are pooled to mitigate the risk brought to provide funds for loans. Such is the primary means for depository institutions to develop revenue. Should the yield curve become inverse, firms in this arena will offer additional fee-generating services including securities underwriting, and prime brokerage.

Use Equity Multiples (as opposed to Enterprise Multiples). In order to consider how valuing a Financial Institution’s balance sheet is different from a non-Financial firm. Consider how an industrials firm wields capital machinery (asset) and the loans (liabilities) it used to finance that asset. The line is blurred in Financial Institutions, which must hold deposit accounts (liabilities) to fuel the issuance of loans (assets). The same accounts are considered loans as they are held in ownership not of the bank, but of the individual client.