respond to: Financial institutions are companies that focus on facilitating monetary transactions that can be broken down into depository, contractual, and investment institutions. Depository institutions are those that obtain funds primarily through deposits from the public $($Nasdaq$,2024).$ This includes commercial banks, credit unions, or savings and loan associations. They provide a place for people to safely deposit money where it can earn interest. Depository institutions also provide time deposit accounts and loans to businesses or individuals. They participate in the money market and the capital market. Contractual institutions have long term liabilities and stable cash flows that can include national provident funds, life insurance companies, private pension funds, and funded social pension insurance systems $($Vittas & Skully, $1991).$ They collect premiums or contributions from their customers and invest those funds in order to generate returns. Insurance companies protect against certain risk which differs from pensions which provide retirement benefits. Contractual institutions intersect with markets as they invest in a variety of securities to meet long$-$term obligations. Investment institutions are companies that act as an intermediary in large and complex financial transactions $($Hargrave$,2024).$ They help corporations issue shares of stock in an IPO or additional stock offering, or arrange debt financing by finding large$-$scale investors for corporate bonds. They usually are mutual funds, money market mutual funds, and finance companies. Investment institutions often help in acquisitions, mergers, broker trades and reorganization. They are a major player in both primary and secondary markets. Forex and Interbank involve the exchange of currencies which can be essential to trade.