Royal Bank of Scotland : Lombard launches Nift to help customers understand their small print

From today Lombard customers with new Unregulated Lease Purchase agreements will be the first to benefit from Nift, a new innovative product created in collaboration with venture development firm Prehype and NatWest. NatWest and Lombard are both part of RBS.

Research indicates that a significant proportion of consumers do not read the small print because it's littered with complex technical language but whenever Terms & Conditions (T&Cs) are signed, both parties are stating that they understood their respective rights and obligations.

Nift was created to address this issue. It provides a contract guide which helps customers navigate their T&Cs, translates clauses into plain English, defines complex words and helps explain the contract's clauses by giving real life examples. It has been built to make complex contracts accessible and understandable and to encourage increased engagement with customers.

Initial tests of a prototype indicate that 92% of consumers found it useful and said it made them pay more attention to the contract than they normally would.

Meeta Gournay of Nift commented: 'We are really excited to be working with NatWest. Our goal is to provide businesses with a set of tools to increase trust through transparency. We are passionate about helping consumers cut-through legal jargon. We want to be everyone's personal guide to contracts.'

Stacey Seltzer, CFO at Prehype, added: 'The Prehype team is thrilled to get Nift off the ground. There's an incredible future in bringing together the industry expertise of large companies with the structures and methodologies of the early stage community to build successful new businesses.'

Ian Isaac, Head of Lombard Sales, also commented on the launch of Nift: 'We know some customers find the language in their T&Cs complicated and intimidating, but it is important customers understand what they are signing. This is an important service we are providing our customers and it is exciting that Lombard is leading the way for this new activity, all designed to make it easier for our customers to do business with us.'