The Financial Services Career Cluster revolves around the movement of money. Moving money between people, businesses, and institutions creates a cycle of investment. This cycle allows companies to grow and expand, helps people build wealth, and generally keeps the economy running.
Financial services touch nearly every part of our economy—from personal savings and buying houses to global trade; from protecting families with insurance to financing large-scale construction projects; and from regulating currency to analyzing stocks and markets.
Financial companies earn profits by charging interest on loans, charging fees to make or manage investments, and by taking on the risk of investing money in businesses that may or may not succeed; in effect they are “making money with money.”
Government regulation plays a big role in financial services. It’s needed to establish fair practices, prevent consumers from being taken advantage of or unknowingly losing money, protect personal data, and ensure banks and other institutions operate with enough funds to cover their needs.
Most of this industry’s activity happens at banks, credit unions, credit card companies, insurance agencies, stock brokerages, real estate agencies, and investment fund companies.
Quick facts:
- Financial technology, or fintech, is a fast-growing part of this cluster. New companies are blending finance and technology, offering tools like robo-advisors, AI-powered budgeting apps, and instant peer-to-peer payments.
- This cluster also has a growing emphasis on financial inclusion. That means making services more accessible—especially for people with limited banking access, both in the U.S. and globally.
- Innovations like cryptocurrency allow people to manage money outside of banks or governments. They operate using blockchain technology, which establishes a secure, digital public record of all transactions.
- And as more transactions go digital, protecting personal and financial data is more important than ever—leading to more jobs in data security and fraud prevention.
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