Turmoil in the financial services industry
Over the next few years, we are expecting to see a huge change in the way that our financial services industry communicates with consumers. Thanks to the relentless pressure put on the industry and the Government by groups such as ourselves (which has been nothing less than putting a bomb under them), they are being forced to change their ways.

For example, a recent independent review for the Government recommends greater use of plain English in savings products.

The review by former Lloyds of London chief Ron Sandler found that 'wide use is made of technical terms which are largely incomprehensible to the layman and, in many cases, may not even mean the same thing when used by different providers.'

In a letter to Chancellor Gordon Brown, Mr Sandler warned that: 'The savings marketplace is generally daunting for the consumer, with much jargon and a vast array of subtly differentiating products.

'Information on underlying costs and performance is often opaque ~ or even, in the case of many with-profits products, entirely absent.'

Mr Sandler also suggested a range of ways to simplify the products that were sold, in particular by tackling the regulation and taxation involved.

One of the projects that we are working on is introducing our guide to pension terms. We have been working with pension providers to create a set of agreed definitions. If we can get an agreement of these terms, and everyone uses them to mean the same thing, we will have made a good step forward to creating a 'level playing field'.