Contrast commercial banks credit unions and investment companies. what different services do they offer? what makes each unique?

As a financial institution, credit unions offer many of the same products and services just like banks but banks have more branch offices than credit unions. Credit unions have insurance through the National Credit Union Administration, which is a government agency similar to the FDIC. It also offers better rates and have fewer fees than other financial institutions. What makes it unique is that it can only serve people who fit in their “Field of Membership” which is way different from the bank which you can become a customer of any bank. It offers people the opportunity to pool their resources (deposits) to provide products and services (loans, transactional accounts) because of being a financial cooperative. The people at the credit union who have accounts are the owners of the financial institution. There are no outside investors, like you find with banks. All generated incomes are put back into the institution in the form of new products & services, better rates, fewer and lower fees and bonus dividends since credit unions are not-for-profit.

 

There are three key entities in thefederal reserve system: the  board  of governors, the  federal reserve banks(reserve banks), and the  federal  open market committee (fomc). while the  federal reserve  has frequent communication with executive branch and congressional officials, its decisions are made independently.