Sector Description
The Sector as a Whole
The Finance and Insurance sector comprises establishments primarily engaged in financial transactions (transactions involving the creation, liquidation, or change in ownership of financial assets) and/or in facilitating financial transactions. Three principal types of activities are identified:
1. Raising funds by taking deposits and/or issuing securities and, in the process, incurring liabilities. Establishments engaged in this activity use raised funds to acquire financial assets by making loans and/or purchasing securities. Putting themselves at risk, they channel funds from lenders to borrowers and transform or repackage the funds with respect to maturity, scale, and risk. This activity is known as financial intermediation.
2. Pooling of risk by underwriting insurance and annuities. Establishments engaged in this activity collect fees, insurance premiums, or annuity considerations; build up reserves; invest those reserves; and make contractual payments. Fees are based on the expected incidence of the insured risk and the expected return on investment.
3. Providing specialized services facilitating or supporting financial intermediation, insurance, and employee benefit programs.
In addition, monetary authorities charged with monetary control are included in this sector.
The subsectors, industry groups, and industries within the Finance and Insurance sector are defined on the basis of their unique production processes. As with all industries, the production processes are distinguished by their use of specialized human resources and specialized physical capital. In addition, the way in which these establishments acquire and allocate financial capital, their source of funds, and the use of those funds provides a third basis for distinguishing characteristics of the production process. For instance, the production process in raising funds through deposit-taking is different from the process of raising funds in bond or money markets. The process of making loans to individuals also requires different production processes than does the creation of investment pools or the underwriting of securities.
Most of the Finance and Insurance subsectors contain one or more industry groups of (1) intermediaries with similar patterns of raising and using funds and (2) establishments engaged in activities that facilitate, or are otherwise related to, that type of financial or insurance intermediation. Industries within this sector are defined in terms of activities for which a production process can be specified, and many of these activities are not exclusive to a particular type of financial institution. To deal with the varied activities taking place within existing financial institutions, the approach is to split these institutions into components performing specialized services. This requires defining the units engaged in providing those services and developing procedures that allow for their delineation. These units are the equivalents for finance and insurance of the establishments defined for other industries.
The output of many financial services, as well as the inputs and the processes by which they are combined, cannot be observed at a single location and can only be defined at a higher level of the organizational structure of the enterprise. Additionally, a number of independent activities that represent separate and distinct production processes may take place at a single location belonging to a multilocation financial firm. Activities are more likely to be homogeneous with respect to production characteristics than are locations, at least in financial services. The classification defines activities broadly enough that it can be used both by those classifying by location and by those employing a more top-down approach to the delineation of the establishment.
Establishments engaged in activities that facilitate, or are otherwise related to, the various types of intermediation are included in multiple subsectors, rather than in a separate subsector dedicated to services alone, because these services are performed by intermediaries, as well as by specialist establishments, and the extent to which the activity of the intermediaries can be separately identified is not clear.
Financial industries are extensive users of electronic means for facilitating the verification of financial balances, authorizing transactions, transferring funds to and from transactors' accounts, notifying banks (or credit card issuers) of the individual transactions, and providing daily summaries. Since these transaction processing activities are integral to the production of finance and insurance services, establishments that principally provide a financial transaction processing service are classified in this sector, rather than in the data processing industry in the Information sector.
Legal entities that hold portfolios of assets on behalf of others are significant and data on them are required for a variety of purposes. Thus for NAICS, these funds, trusts, and other financial vehicles are the fifth subsector of the Finance and Insurance sector. These entities earn interest, dividends, and other property income, but have little or no employment and no revenue from the sale of services. Separate establishments and employees devoted to the management of funds are classified in Industry Group 5239, Other Financial Investment Activities.
IBISWorld Industry Research Report
Finance and Insurance in the US (52)
Revenue 2025
$7303.1bn
Growth 2025
1.52%
Key Trends
Sector profitability is expected to decrease despite rising interest rates
Demand for sector services is determined by the overall level of financial activity
Corporate profit and disposable income levels are expected to rise
Products and Services
NAICS Hierarchy 52 - Finance and Insurance
NAICS Code 52 - Finance and Insurance sits in the 2-digit Finance and Insurance sector. NAICS codes can be 2- to 6-digits and the further along the hierarchy, the more detailed and specific the category will be. Learn more about the structure of NAICS codes
2 Digits: 52
Sector Title: Finance and Insurance
3 Digits 4 Digits 5 Digits 6 Digits
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5211 Monetary Authorities-Central Bank
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52111 Monetary Authorities-Central Bank
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5221 Depository Credit Intermediation
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52211 Commercial Banking
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52212 Savings Institutions
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52213 Credit Unions
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52219 Other Depository Credit Intermediation
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5222 Nondepository Credit Intermediation
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52221 Credit Card Issuing
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52222 Sales Financing
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52229 Other Nondepository Credit Intermediation
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5223 Activities Related to Credit Intermediation
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52231 Mortgage and Nonmortgage Loan Brokers
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52232 Financial Transactions Processing, Reserve, and Clearinghouse Activities
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52239 Other Activities Related to Credit Intermediation
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5231 Securities and Commodity Contracts Intermediation and Brokerage
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52311 Investment Banking and Securities Dealing
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52312 Securities Brokerage
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52313 Commodity Contracts Dealing
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52314 Commodity Contracts Brokerage
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5232 Securities and Commodity Exchanges
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52321 Securities and Commodity Exchanges
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5239 Other Financial Investment Activities
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52391 Miscellaneous Intermediation
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52392 Portfolio Management
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52393 Investment Advice
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52399 All Other Financial Investment Activities
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5241 Insurance Carriers
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52411 Direct Life, Health, and Medical Insurance Carriers
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52412 Direct Insurance (except Life, Health, and Medical) Carriers
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52413 Reinsurance Carriers
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5242 Agencies, Brokerages, and Other Insurance Related Activities
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52421 Insurance Agencies and Brokerages
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52429 Other Insurance Related Activities
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5251 Insurance and Employee Benefit Funds
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52511 Pension Funds
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52512 Health and Welfare Funds
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52519 Other Insurance Funds
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5259 Other Investment Pools and Funds
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52591 Open-End Investment Funds
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52592 Trusts, Estates, and Agency Accounts
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52599 Other Financial Vehicles
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NAICS Resources
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