NS&I: Finance industry 'is cutting jargon'

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NS&I: Finance industry 'is cutting jargon'

Mon 28th Jul 2008

People in the finance industry are trying to reduce their use of specialist terminology, National Savings and Investments (NS&I) has said.

A survey by NS&I) found that 53 per cent of people were confused by terms such as "tax" and "inflation" when considering managing their savings.

One in ten did not know the meaning of "inflation" while more than a quarter did not know how tax affects their savings.

Less than half (42 per cent) of people consider tax issues when deciding where to put their savings.

Gill Stephens, spokesperson for the government-backed savings and investment provider, said that use of jargon "does scare people off".

She said the financial industry is realising that it needs "to make things simpler for people" and that jargon needs to be restricted, especially since "people don't seem to be interested in savings enough as it is".

But she denied that financial companies try to confuse customers for business benefit, saying: "I think companies use financial jargon because they need to.

"They certainly wouldn't put it in there if they didn't have to because obviously they are keen to encourage people to save."

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