Definition: Monetary financial institution

ESA 1995

The monetary financial institutions (MFIs) comprise the sub-sector the central bank and the sub-sector other monetary financial institutions, and coincide with the monetary financial institutions for statistical purposes as defined by the European Monetary Institute. 

MFIs cannot be described simply as "banks", because they may possibly include some financial corporations which may not call themselves banks, and some which may not be permitted to do so in some countries, while some other financial corporations describing themselves as banks may not in fact be MFIs.