Bank Speak

“Bank speak” is bank lingo that bankers understand, but many customers don’t. “Bank speak” has been cited in print since at least 1983.
 
“Bank speak” was popularized in a 2013 television advertisement by LendingTree. A puppet in the television commercial declared, “I smell b.s. (i.e., bank speak).”
       
 
Google Books
New Statesman
Volume 106
1983
Pg. 20:
It is written in the sophisticated language of bank-speak: ...
 
Google Books
The Biggest, the Boldest, the Best Deals:
The world’s shrewdest and most lucrative deals from business, entertainment, politics, and sports
By Cheryl Moch and Vincent Virga
New York, NY: Crown Publishers
1984
Pg. 23:
The chief executive of the Deutsche Bank quickly assured them in bank-speak: ...
 
Google Books
International Currency Review
Volume 19
1988
Pg. 74:
The authors of this particular passage are to be congratulated upon their expertise in perfecting the art of Bank-speak not merely so as to imply, with success, that if they were not central bankers, and were not inhibited as well by political considerations, they would have been inclined to have employed more robust language, but also on the delicacy with which they suggest that a policy stance which, on any objective monetary criterion, must be considered ...
 
Google Books
Casselmania:
More Wacky Canadian Words & Sayings
By Bill Casselman
Toronto, ON: Little, Brown Canada
1996
Pg. 103:
Would you entrust financial responsibility to an organization that approved such incomprehensible bank-speak?
 
21 April 1998, Chicago (IL) Sun-Times, “Big bank mergers deserve close look” by Tom Petruno, pg. 46:
In the early 1980s, the term “too big to fail” joined the lexicon of bank-speak, when Citicorp and other US financial giants were threatened by Latin American countries’ ...
   
Forbes.com
Citi Falls Short
Liz Moyer, 04.11.07, 12:44 PM ET
(...)
Instead, the plan reinforces Prince’s previously articulated plan to eliminate the internal barriers—or “silos” in bank-speak—within the company and reduce bureaucracy.
   
CBC News
Interest rates: What you need to know about the cost of money
Last Updated April 22, 2008
(...)
When the Bank of Canada changes its key lending rate, it’s changing the supply of money (or “monetary stimulus” in bank-speak).
 
Express (UK)
Bank interest rates cut by 0.5%
The Bank of England has dramatically slashed interest rates by 0.5% along with central banks around the world in response to the global financial turmoil.
Published: Wed, October 8, 2008
(...)
Policymakers said inflation fears had diminished while the “recent intensification” of the financial crisis has “augmented the downside risks to growth” - Bank-speak for recession worries.
   
Adweek
Ad of the Day: LendingTree Merkley’s furry green puppet calls ‘BS’ on big-bank loans and mortgages
By Andrew McMains
May 7, 2013, 2:25 PM EDT
To personify new client LendingTree, Merkley + Partners turned to a puppet.
 
In a new TV ad, “Lenny” is a green-faced, straight-shooting friend to Len, his human counterpart. As both sit before the desk of a bank-loan officer, Lenny cries “BS” after the lender tells them they “won’t find a better offer anywhere.”
 
“Ohhhhh,” groans Lenny. “I smell BS.” He then raises his voice to ask, “Hey, does anyone else here smell BS?”
 
Before his buddy can wave him off for being profane, Lenny explains that he’s talking about “bank speak,” before murmuring (in reference to the lender), “And frankly, he’s full of it.”