Economic Essence and Function of Financial Intermediaries in Ukraine
The article studies essence and purpose of activity of financial intermediaries in Ukraine. It analyses scientific works of foreign and Ukrainian scientists, on the basis of which it performs systematisation of views of researchers with respect to the essence of such terms as financial intermediary and financial intermediation. The author offers own interpretation of the financial intermediary notion. It identifies the goal of activity of financial intermediaries at the macro-level and micro-level with the help of consideration of their functions. In the result of the study the article establishes that study of functions of financial intermediaries at the macro-level allows analysis of the general level of the country economy development depending on the level of development of financial intermediaries, and consideration of functions of financial intermediaries at the level of population and individual subjects of economy (individual investors). The article considers functions and conducts classification of financial intermediaries depending on the financial market segment.