The diversified financial services segment includes a range of consumer and commercially oriented companies offering a wide variety of products and services, including various lending products (such as home equity loan

Home equity loan

A home equity loan is a type of loan in which the borrower uses the equity in their home as collateral. These loans are useful to finance major expenses such as home repairs, medical bills or college education...

s and credit card

Credit card

A credit card is a small plastic card issued to users as a system of payment. It allows its holder to buy goods and services based on the holder's promise to pay for these goods and services...

s), insurance

Insurance

In law and economics, insurance is a form of risk management primarily used to hedge against the risk of a contingent, uncertain loss. Insurance is defined as the equitable transfer of the risk of a loss, from one entity to another, in exchange for payment. An insurer is a company selling the...

, and securities and investment products. Some of these firms were created during the wave of consolidation that has taken place in the financial industry over the past decade.

GICS Category

"Diversified financials" is a specific category of the Global Industry Classification Standard

Global Industry Classification Standard

The Global Industry Classification Standard is an industry taxonomy developed by MSCI and Standard & Poor's for use by the global financial community. The GICS structure consists of 10 sectors, 24 industry groups, 68 industries and 154 sub-industries into which S&P has categorized all major...

.