[Excerpt] This paper is one in a series of sector profiles giving an overview of structural characteristics, work organisation practices, human resource management, direct employee participation and social dialogue in the financial services sector. It is based on the third European Company Survey (ECS), which gathers data about companies and establishments with 10 or more employees in all economic sectors except those in the NACE Rev. 2.0 categories A (agriculture and fishing), T (activities of the household) and U (activities of extraterritorial organisations and bodies) across all 28 EU Member States as well as Iceland, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro and Turkey. Additional information on the structural characteristics is derived from Eurostat data. The sector includes all activities related to financial and insurance activities (NACE K) and real estate activities (NACE L). The third ECS contains responses from 1,084 establishments in this sector across the EU28 representing around 4% of the private sector. The profile compares aspects of establishment characteristics with the EU28 as a whole. The methodology used (latent class analysis) was developed in the overview report. Please note that percentages may not total 100 in some figures due to rounding.