Abstract
Effective financial systems provide significant benefits for the sustainable development of the countries. Therefore, most governments aim to take some actions to increase the effectiveness of the financial system. In this framework, financial intermediaries play a crucial role for this purpose. Financial intermediaries can be mainly classified into two different categories: banks and nonbanking organizations. In this chapter, the responsibilities of the financial intermediaries are explained. Within this context, first of all, the different types of the banks are identified. In addition, nonbanking organizations are defined. It is concluded that financial intermediaries should work effectively to increase the performance of the financial system. This situation has a positive influence on the economic growth of the countries.