types of Financial Intermediaries in an economy

types of Financial Intermediaries in an economy are:

Commercial Banks
Traditionally, the commercial banks accepted savings in the form of deposit only to provide finances for working capital needs because of the orthodox view. The orthodox view was that since the bank have the liability of repayment of deposits on demand and should always be able to pay back these deposits, the banks should lend funds only to those outlets which are of self liquidating nature, i.e., the outlets which generate resources in the normal course of business and thus help in automatic repayment of the borrowed funds. But, with changing needs of the financial system, commercial banks have also changes this policy of them.
Now, they even lend
(i) Long term loans required by the infrastructure sector
(ii) Retail finance such as housing finance, consumer finance, etc
(iii) Capital markets
They have also enlarged their geographical and functional coverage such as expansion to the rural areas, other priority sectors such as exports, small and medium enterprises etc.

Non Banking Financial Companies (NBFC)
They provide fund based i.e. asset based services and non fund based i.e. advisory services. Funds are mostly raised through public deposits ranging from one year to seven years of maturity. Depending on the types of services provided by them, they are categorized as:
Asset finance companies
Housing finance companies
Venture capital funds
Merchant banking organization
Credit rating agencies
Housing finance companies
Stock broking firms
Depositories

Mutual Funds
The mutual funds pool the savings of relatively small investors and diversify these funds into number of sound investments. The mutual funds are particularly beneficial for the small investors who have lesser amount of funds and not enough expertise to manage securities properly. The mutual funds issue securities called units to the investors called unit holders in proportion to the amount of funds invested by the investors. The profits or losses are also shared by the investors in proportion of the funds invested by them.
The mutual fund has sponsor, trustees, asset management company (AMC) and custodian. The trust is established by the sponsor who is like the promoter of the company. The trustees supervise and direct AMC and monitor the performance and compliance of SEBI regulation by the mutual fund. The AMC manages fund by investing in various types of securities. The custodian holds the securities of various schemes of mutual funds in its safe custody.

Insurance Organization
The investors in these kind of organization are the policyholders whose savings are collected in the form of insurance premium, in the exchange of which, they are promised a specified sum at the maturity of the policy or the happening of an event.
There are various other types of financial intermediaries such as investment brokers, investment bankers, pension funds, credit unions.