What are the economic functions financial intermediaries perform?

There are 3 types of financial intermediaries: investment bankers, brokers, and dealer. Investment banking firms help businesses and governments sell their securities to the public. They purchase securities from the issuing company and then resell them to the public (called underwriting) or they try to sell securities for a desired price, without guarantees (called best efforts basis). (Gallagher & Andrew, 2003) Broker dealers are financial intermediaries that provide a wide range of financial and investment services …

…to know how you can access your account information if you can't get online for some reason and need to make a transaction. Will a "live" broker be accessible to you if you need to place a trade? What if you need a copy of your latest monthly statements for the IRS and the web site is down? Overall, online investing has made investing more easily for the client to make changes with their account