There are phrases and words used by the financial services regulatory bureaucrats which infuriate me.
'Mis-selling' for example. This is nonsense as no-one can be forced to buy anything. Buying is voluntary therefore nothing can be 'mis-sold'. Especially if one of the cornerstones of English law is adhered to - caveat emptor.
The FSA et al have some other dillies:
'Consumer detriment' - eh? Product A costs more than Product B which you failed to buy, so you've suffered detriment even if no-one was aware that product B existed.
'Treating Customers Fairly' - Here 'fairly' is used to replace 'equitably' - as in fair and just.
'Retail distribution review'. Distribution of what? Review of what?
'Retail Mediation Activity Monitoring' - well, we do that but what it is that we do we don't know as none of the questions are answerable. I am sure that there are more.
Do you know any? And are they 'weasel words' or are they 'Newspeak'?
Tuesday, 21 June 2011
Newspeak or Weasel Words
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
7 comments:
I like to switch these words and phrases. So mis-selling may as well be called mis-buying. Anything to do with service niggles me too:-
Core services (are they just the profitable services?)
Front line services (what about back line services?)
Service delivery (so what are those you don't deliver?)
I vote for Newspeak.
The word "retail" annoys me greatly in this context, and in any event "retail" IS "distribution", isn't it?
Retail is detail. Or perhaps e-mail.
I attended the Securities Insitutues recent Retail Distribution Review Roadshow in Edinburgh. Or RDRR for short - it was hilarious.
I remember a salesman trying to get me to buy a policy that would make my loan repayments if I was sick or unemployed. I read the small print closely and concluded the conditions were impossible to meet; unemployed as defined by the state (I was self-employed, therefore in the eyes of the government I could not be "unemployed") sick, as in hospitalised for two weeks or more. Nobody spends two weeks in hospital these days, they boot you out as soon as possible. Was this mis-selling, or simple fraud?
RlJ - it's a confidence trick. The three shell game made legit by bankers. But, you being a real person and operating on the basis of caveat emptor, read the small print. Why doesn't anyone else do that? Oh I know, because 'it's never my fault' nowadays is it?
"Mis-selling" is surely a good old English euphemism for conned or defrauded . There are cases where the sales people are genuinely misinformed or uninformed,so the misselling is unintentional.Ohers where they're not sure but hope it works out for the best.But the word is mostly used so as not to pre-judge the motives of the seller who has sold a dud.
Post a Comment