Revenue from securities, commodity contracts and other financial investment activities in the United States, continued to climb at an accelerating rate, reaching US$499 billion in 2006, a 23% increase from US$406 billion in 2005, according to new data released today by the U.S. Census Bureau.

“The financial investment subsector experienced a US$93 billion increase in 2006. This equates to, on average, a gain of US$1.8 billion a week,” said Mark Wallace, chief of the Census Bureau’s Service Sector Statistics Division.

Within the securities and commodities contracts industry group, the largest industry was investment banking and securities dealing, which climbed US$45 billion in 2006 to US$199 billion, a 29% increase from the prior year. The securities brokerage industry increased US$25 billion, a 19% increase, to US$156 billion.

Other financial investment activity, which includes portfolio management and investment advice, increased 18% in 2006 to US$133 billion. Portfolio management increased 18% to US$107 billion. Investment advice was up 19% to US$26 billion.

The estimates are based on data from the 2006 Service Annual Survey. Estimates contain sampling and nonsampling errors.