Cebu bankers welcome move to laymanize banking jargons

CEBU, Philippines - A Cebu Bankers Club (CBC) official said that using the local dialect in bank transactions will allow more people to understand the “intimidating” banking terms and concepts.

CBC President Maximo Eleccion said this in reaction to the plan of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) to translate English bank terms into Filipino.

“That move is very ideal. That’s interesting,” Eleccion told The FREEMAN yesterday in an interview, saying that it is important that clients really understand the terms used when dealing with banks.

He said some may not really understand the meaning of debit, credit, interest rate and all the other terms in the banking jargon.

He, however, said that some banking terms are better expressed in English and do not have to be translated anymore but others can actually be translated into a dialect the common people can understand.

“We have terms that we don’t know their ‘bisaya’ translation,” said Eleccion who works for Bank of the Philippine Islands.

It may be a challenge though, he said, to find the right local dialect translation of some banking terms. 

Presently the banking industry mainly uses the English language.

Eleccion explained bank employees especially tellers are being told to adjust to the language of clients they are transacting with.

“Kung mag-binisaya ang client mag-binisaya pud mi, kung tagalog mag-tagalog pud mi as long as we know the language,” he said.

The CBC official believes that if terms are “laymanized”, banking will become more attractive to the ordinary people.

“With that, banks are reaching out to the masses,” the bank official said.

BSP Deputy Governor Diwa Guinigundo was earlier quoted in a TV news report as saying the central bank is planning to use the Filipino language in the industry to better communicate with people.

It was reported the BSP and the Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino (KWF) will soon sign an agreement for the latter to help the former translate banking terms and documents.

Eleccion said that Cebu bankers will support the BSP’s plan.

The plan came in time for the "Buwan ng Wika" celebration this month.  (FREEMAN)