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1 4. Economic functions of FIs A) Brokerage B) Asset/Risk transformation Benefits: ? Increased liquidity, Price risk reduction ? Decreased costs ? Information costs ? Transaction Costs ?Efficiency in the financial markets C) Other functions 2 A) Brokerage: Providing information and transaction services Examples ? Investment analysts, stock brokers ? Insurance brokers 3 B) Asset/risk transformation The FI transforms a financial claim in a different financial claim with different risk characteristics Technically: The FI purchase financial claims primary securities (issued by corporations) by selling financial claims secondary claims (issued by FIs) Balance Sheet of a NonFinancial firm (., BCE) Balance Sheet of an FI Assets Liabilities Assets Liabilities Real Assets (Plant, Machinery) Primary Securities (Debt, Equity) Primary Securities (Debt, Equity). ., loans, bonds, shares. Secondary Securities (Deposits, insurance policies, mutual fund shares) 4 BENEFITS: Liquidity and Price Risk ? Liquidity: The ease of converting an asset into cash. ? In capital markets liquidity can also refers to the ability to quickly trade large size orders at low cost ? Price risk: the risk that price of an asset will be lower than its purchase price. It is more attractive for investors to buy the financial claims of FIs (., secondary securities) instead of investing directly in prim