Broker-Dealer

A broker-dealer, or securities dealer, is a firm that acts in a dual-capacity – as a broker acting on an agency basis fulfilling buy and sell orders for third-party clients, and as a dealer acting as a principal i.e. trading on its own behalf. Broker-dealers is a term also loosely applied to what the securities units of investment banks provide around the new-issue process for debt and equity as well as their trading divisions.