Copy article

Skipton calls for new money-related emojis

ended 17. July 2026

Jazz Gakhal, Skipton's Money CEO, has called for new money emojis to be created to help younger people better understand and engage with money issues (today, as you'll all know, is Emoji Day). 

Gakhal said: “Emojis are no longer just a fun add-on to conversations – they have become a core part of how people communicate and make themselves understood.

“Yet when it comes to talking about money in the UK, there are surprisingly few emojis that reflect the currency and financial experiences that are part of everyday life for millions of people.

“As digital communication continues to evolve, it's important that the symbols people use reflect the experiences and situations they encounter in real life.”

Good and practical idea that reflects the evolution (some might say painful implosion) of language in the digital world? Or bad idea? Any thoughts, ASAP please. 

4 responses from the Newspage community

Copy all

Copy

Editor
Anita Wright
Chartered Financial Planner at Ribble Wealth Management
So a building society boss has looked at the state of Britain’s finances the savings rates that lose to inflation, the mortgages people can’t get, the pensions that won’t stretch and concluded the missing ingredient is a picture of a piggy bank. Emojis are punctuation for tone. They tell you the sender is joking. What they cannot do is carry an argument, because they have no grammar, no tense, no negation. You cannot express “my real return is negative once you strip out inflation” in pictures. You can only express a feeling about it. And feelings are precisely what the financial industry would prefer young people had instead of arithmetic. Words have meanings. That’s the whole point of them. A generation fluent in emoji and illiterate in compound interest is not a communication problem, it’s a very convenient customer base.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​
Copy

Editor
Nouran Moustafa
Practice Principal & IFA at Roxton Wealth
It is a clever idea, but we should not pretend a new emoji will fix financial literacy. Language has changed, and younger people increasingly communicate through symbols, shorthand and visual cues, so money emojis could make financial conversations feel more natural and less intimidating. That matters.

But the real gap is not a missing pound-sign sticker. It is that too many people still leave school without understanding tax, pensions, credit, mortgages or compound interest. Emojis can open the door, but education has to walk through it.

Used well, this could be more than a gimmick: banks, schools and advisers could use clearer visual language to explain budgeting, debt, saving and risk. Used badly, it becomes another campaign that looks modern without changing outcomes. I support the idea, but only as part of a much bigger push to make money education practical, accessible and impossible to ignore.
Copy

Editor
Jamie Elvin
Director at Strive Mortgages
Anything that gets younger people talking about money has to be a positive. Financial jargon can be intimidating, and if emojis help make conversations around saving, budgeting, mortgages and investing more engaging, then they’re worth exploring. They won’t solve financial literacy on their own, but if they encourage even one more person to ask questions or seek advice, that’s a step in the right direction. The key is making money feel less intimidating and more relatable.
Copy

Editor
Tracey Dixon
Buy-to-Let Mortgage Specialist & Owner at Pure Mortgage and Protection
An emoji might start the conversation, but it won’t replace good financial advice.” Making money feel less intimidating is a positive step, but the real challenge is helping people understand complex decisions like mortgages, budgeting and home ownership. Anything that encourages people to engage is welcome, as long as it leads to meaningful education rather than just another icon on a keyboard.