A
non-bank financial institution (
NBFI) is a
financial institution that does not have a full
banking license or is not supervised by a national or international banking regulatory agency. NBFIs facilitate bank-related
financial services, such as
investment,
risk pooling,
contractual savings, and
market brokering. Examples of these include
insurance firms,
pawn shops,
cashier's check issuers,
check cashing locations,
payday lending,
currency exchanges, and
microloan organizations.
Alan Greenspan has identified the role of NBFIs in strengthening an economy, as they provide "multiple alternatives to transform an economy's savings into capital investment [which] act as backup facilities should the primary form of intermediation fail."