Goldman Sachs Industry Report
Industry Analysis
Financial Services Overview The financial services industry is one of the most widespread and established industries in the global economy. All companies who have sales from the management of money for either individuals or institutions are included under this umbrella. In the United States alone, according to the Census Bureau 2007 industry report, it included 503,156 establishments, had approximately 6.6 million employees, and had revenues of 3.6 billion dollars. Financial services used to be a safe haven for conservative investors who thought the stocks provided higher than normal dividend yield, stable performance and revenues and some defense against volatility. Within the last decade however, the collapse of global financial economy due to the subprime market and derivatives market falling apart has led to more careful involvement in this industry. Moreover, greater regulation in both the U.S. and overseas has led to more controlled administration of many companies in this industry.
This industry is also extremely susceptible to the waves of the economic cycle. The most opportune time to buy is during economic recessions since financial service companies tend to rise out of recession rather fast because interest rates are usually relatively low. Financial investments are typically undervalued during recession when stock prices are low. Collapse of the Market Although once considered a conservatives market 2008 and 2009 saw a shift in this thinking due to major issues arising in the financial services industry. Although a long-standing crisis of almost a decade, the collapse of the global economies came when in June 2007 Bear Stearns announced to the world that two of its major hedge funds, totaling in over three billion dollars, were failing. The disaster of these companies arose because they were cripplingly invested in the derivatives market based on the US subprime mortgage market. Additionally in September of 2008 Lehman
Financial Services Overview The financial services industry is one of the most widespread and established industries in the global economy. All companies who have sales from the management of money for either individuals or institutions are included under this umbrella. In the United States alone, according to the Census Bureau 2007 industry report, it included 503,156 establishments, had approximately 6.6 million employees, and had revenues of 3.6 billion dollars. Financial services used to be a safe haven for conservative investors who thought the stocks provided higher than normal dividend yield, stable performance and revenues and some defense against volatility. Within the last decade however, the collapse of global financial economy due to the subprime market and derivatives market falling apart has led to more careful involvement in this industry. Moreover, greater regulation in both the U.S. and overseas has led to more controlled administration of many companies in this industry.
This industry is also extremely susceptible to the waves of the economic cycle. The most opportune time to buy is during economic recessions since financial service companies tend to rise out of recession rather fast because interest rates are usually relatively low. Financial investments are typically undervalued during recession when stock prices are low. Collapse of the Market Although once considered a conservatives market 2008 and 2009 saw a shift in this thinking due to major issues arising in the financial services industry. Although a long-standing crisis of almost a decade, the collapse of the global economies came when in June 2007 Bear Stearns announced to the world that two of its major hedge funds, totaling in over three billion dollars, were failing. The disaster of these companies arose because they were cripplingly invested in the derivatives market based on the US subprime mortgage market. Additionally in September of 2008 Lehman