The financial services industry can be defined, in general terms, as a collective group of companies or organizations whose primary revenues are derived from the development and/or marketing and selling of products designed to provide financial security to the purchaser.

These financial service products can be defined as income producing products such as mutual funds, stocks, bonds, annuities, IRA's and other marketable securities.

The definition does not include those companies or organizations whose primary revenues are derived from "fee for services provided" products such as checking accounts, loans etc.