AND SOLUTIONS RATED A+
✔✔Bank of England - ✔✔The UK's central bank with responsibility for maintaining a
healthy level of financial stability for the UK as a whole.
✔✔Banks - ✔✔A bank is an organisation that handles financial transactions and stores
money on behalf of its customers.
✔✔Building Societies - ✔✔These are organisations that handle financial transactions
and store money on behalf of their members.
✔✔Credit Unions - ✔✔These are not-for-profit organisations that handle financial
transactions and store money on behalf of their members
✔✔National savings and investments - ✔✔This is a government-backed organisation
that offers a secure saving option.
✔✔Insurance companies - ✔✔These are businesses that protect against the risk of loss
in return for a premium.
✔✔Pension companies - ✔✔These are businesses that sell policies to individuals,
either privately or through employers, to allow them to save now to find retirement in the
future.
✔✔Pawnbrokers - ✔✔These are businesses or individuals who loan money against
security of a personal asset.
✔✔Branch - ✔✔Physical places where the customer will visit to carry out transactions
which can be face to face or using a computerised facility.
✔✔Online banking - ✔✔The use of internet to carry out banking transactions
✔✔Telephone banking - ✔✔When transactions are carried out over the telephone.
✔✔Mobile banking - ✔✔The use of mobile devices such as mobile phones and tablets
to conduct financial transactions.
✔✔Postal banking - ✔✔The use of the postal service to carry out paper-based financial
transactions.
✔✔Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) - ✔✔An independent organisation with a remit to
regulate the actions of providers of financial services.
, ✔✔Financial Ombudsmen Service (FOS) - ✔✔An organisation appointed by the
government to represent the interests of the consumer in disputes with financial service
providers.
✔✔Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) - ✔✔The organisation in the UK
that will pay compensation to a consumer of financial services if the service provider is
unable to.
✔✔Office of Fair Trading (OFT) - ✔✔A government organisation that was established to
regulate all markets including financial markets.
✔✔Legislation: Consumer Credit - ✔✔These are laws passed by the UK government to
enforce the regulation of any firm offering credit to consumers.
✔✔Citizens Advice - ✔✔This is an organisation, run by charities, that offers advice on a
wide range of issues both financial and non-financial
✔✔Independent Financial Adviser (IFA) - ✔✔Professionals who offer independent
advice to their clients on financial matters including savings, investments, mortgages
and pensions.
✔✔Price Comparison Websites - ✔✔These websites collate prices for similar goods
and services within an industry allowing consumers to make comparisons easily and
find the best deals.
✔✔Money advice service - ✔✔This is a government organisation set up to offer free
and impartial financial advice in the UK.
✔✔Debt Counsellors - ✔✔This is a professional who offers independent advice on how
best to manage debt.
✔✔Individual Voluntary Arrangements (IVAs) Bankruptcy - ✔✔This is a government
organisation that allows an individual to declare themselves bankrupt while agreeing to
pay all or part of the money they owe to creditors through an insolvency practitioner.
✔✔Financial transactions - ✔✔Actions by a business that
involve money either going
into or out of a business.
✔✔HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) - ✔✔A British government
department responsible for
the collection of all types of taxes.