All the boys are taking their AS levels and in addition are taking an IFS course (an AS level equivalent qualification). The course looks at the structure of the banking industry and how it came to be that way.

In addition to the theory the students have set up a company called magine which is a Young Enterprise Company. This scheme encourages young people to get together and run their own company.

magine makes cufflinks out of coins and they sell for roughly 4-8 to other boys at the school.

Financial lessons

The boys were amazed to learn in a recent newspaper article that 46% of 16-year-olds didn’t know the difference between credit and debit cards.

So they decided to design and produce their own product to help students personal finance better.

The CD-Rom presentation is called “Financial advice for the teen earner” and gives basic tips on just about every aspect of school life:

About 21% of people surveyed said they thought they would save more money if financial services companies were clearer in
with them.

The research was carried out for the insurance industry’s Raising Standards Quality Mark Scheme, which aims to replace financial jargon with clear English.

It thinks less jargon would help to reduce Britain’s 27bn savings gap - the deficit between what people actually save and what they need to save for retirement.

Three-quarters of the 2,500 people questioned said they would take more interest in their finances if they understood the information companies sent to them.

Jargon has played a major role in switching people off from money management Martin Shaw Raising Standards

Nearly 40% said they
would take more time to read statements they received.

And 36% of people thought they would be more likely to shop around for a better deal if financial products were easier to understand.

Martin Shaw, director of the Raising Standards Quality Mark Scheme, said:
“Our research shows that this is more than a simple exercise in customer
relations - jargon has played a major role in switching people off from money
management.

“Of course, clear information will not close the savings gap alone, and the
Association of British Insurers is continuing to work with the and
regulator on improving the incentives to save.

“In the current climate, people need to be able to make informed decisions
and the industry’s Quality Mark helps the public do just that.”

BBC Radio 4’s Money Box has been named Financial Programme of the Year at a prestigious ceremony in London.

Money Box Presenter Paul Lewis collected the award at the Association of British Insurers (ABI) event on Wednesday.

Other nominees in the Financial Programme or of the Year category were the BBC’s Andrew Verity and Declan Curry.

The BBC News Website’s Your Money section also triumphed, winning the Best Financial Website category.

The awards are designed to “celebrate excellence in journalism”, and are now in their tenth year.

Money Box was commended by the judges as “tough, enquiring, but fair”.

Lifetime achievement

The ABI is the trade association for Britain’s insurance industry.

Award winners were chosen by the and press teams of the ABI’s 400 member companies.

The ABI said the factors taken into account were accuracy, knowledge of issues, ability to inform and educate, and receptiveness to story ideas.

Other winners at the event included the Financial Times which scooped the Personal Finance Newspaper of the Year award.

The Daily Telegraph scored a double success. Ian Cowie was voted Personal Finance Editor of the Year, with Alison Steed named Personal Finance of the Year.

The Lifetime Achievement in Financial award went to William Kay, Sunday Times.

The event was hosted by Ian Hislop and attended by 450 from the financial services industry and financial media.

BBC Radio 4’s Money Box is broadcast on Saturdays at 1204 BST and on Mondays at 1502 BST.

After looking at the way 43 firms sold insurance policies over the phone, the FSA concluded that customers were in danger of being treated unfairly.

The FSA said the standard of sales involving cold calling was “poor”.

However, the regulator said that the firms were now taking swift action to improve the way they sold insurance.

“The quality of cold calling in general insurance sales was disappointing,” said Vernon Everitt of the FSA.

“Consumers were pressurised and the benefits of the product were sometimes .

“The bottom line is that firms must never pressurise consumers into making a rushed decision, and must always clearly spell out the nature and of the products.”

Listening in

Since last September, the FSA has been looking at the way insurance firms sell their policies over the phone.

It sent questionnaires to 43 firms, listened in to more than 260 calls made by salesmen at 19 of them and also visited 10 of the firms.

Where customers had called the company first, the FSA found that the salesmen’s general approach was good, though the disclosure of any significant limitations and could have been better.

The main failings were detected when salesmen called potential customers out of the blue to sell policies such as personal accident, health, and sickness insurance.

Last month the FSA ordered the removal of unfair clauses in payment protection insurance policies (PPI).

And in January it warned the insurance industry to stop making false claims in adverts.

The customer service positions at Lloyds TSB Insurance will bring the total number of staff at the firm’s Park base to nearly 900.

Recruitment is set to take place over the next four months, for roles including claims administrators and team leaders.

Newport Councillor Ken Critchley it as ” news”.

David Stoddard, head of customer service at the firm, said the firm, based in Tredegar Park, was seeking to become one of the leading in Europe.

Steve Pantak, from the finance sector trade union UNIFI, added: “It’s good to see the company reaffirm its commitment to the local south Wales economy,” he said.

The study shows there are 20,000 more finance jobs than five years ago. London and the south east of England lost 21,000 over the same period.

Jobs in life insurance and pension funds in Scotland fell by 4,000, but new banking jobs rose by 24,000.

Business and financial services employ 107,000 Scots or 4.7% of the workforce.

Average wage

Scotland’s two biggest companies the Royal Bank of Scotland and the Bank of Scotland employ about 35,000 people between them.

The report said that the average full-time financial sector worker in the UK earns, on average, 699 per week.

This is the most of any major industry group and almost 200 more than the average UK wage.

Across the UK there are 30 local authority areas where more than 25% of the workforce are employed in the broader business and finance sector.

Twenty-five of these are in London and the south east of England, four are in the east of England and one is in Scotland.

More recently significant growth in banking jobs in Scotland has more than offset job losses in insurance and pension funds Tim Crawford Bank of Scotland

The study said that 26% of people living in Edinburgh work in business and financial services.

The next highest local authority areas were East Lothian and East (19%), followed by Midlothian (18%) and West Lothian (17%). Glasgow was 14%.

Tim Crawford, group economist at Bank of Scotland, said: “Scotland has delivered the strongest percentage growth in financial services in Great Britain on a five, 10 and 20 year time frame.

“Good pay levels and the sector’s ability to generate new jobs in ancillary areas such as IT and the law have made a real difference to Scotland.

“More recently significant growth in banking jobs in Scotland has more than offset job losses in insurance and pension funds.”