Marex House Style

This style guide applies to all marketing and editorial material produced by Marex companies. It doesn’t include financial documents, such as the annual report. 
 
If in doubt, refer to the UK government’s house style and readability guidelines. 
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/style-guide 
https://readabilityguidelines.co.uk/ 
  
Referring to Marex 
Refer to ‘Marex’. Do not use Marex Clearing, Marex Environmental etc unless there is a specific reason to refer to a legal entity. 
 
Do not use legal suffixes – PLC, GmbH, Ltd – unless you are referring to two separate legal entities with the same name. Eg ‘Megabank Ltd is selling its European business, Megabank SA’ 
  
Ampersands 
Don’t use ampersands (&) except for company names (eg M&S, AT&T), and in commonly used acronyms – eg R&D, M&A 
  
Numbers, dates and times, and currency 
Spell out zero to nine; use numbers for 10 and above 
Specify a dollar-denominated country apart from the US (eg C$, HK$) 
Write dates in this format: 4 June 2017. Don’t add ‘st/nd/th’, or add a comma between the month and year.  
Write time using a twelve-hour clock: 9am, 5pm. Use a full stop, not a colon, between the hour and minutes – 2.30pm, not 2:30pm. 
  
Capital letters 
Use sentence case – only capitalise the first word of a sentence, including in headings. 
Don’t capitalise job titles, or practice groups within the company, unless these you are using the full name of a distinct legal entity. Eg ‘Marex has announced…’, but not ‘Our Clearing team…’ 
  
Abbreviations and acronyms 
The first time you use an abbreviation or acronym, explain it in full unless it’s well known, such as UK, US, EU, etc. 
Do not use full stops in abbreviations: BBC, not B.B.C.  
Similarly, no dots for Dr, Mr, eg, ie, etc. 
Use ‘m’ or ‘bn’ when writing out million or billion: £10m; US$2.2bn. A billion is a thousand million. 
  
US v British English 
Use word that are spelled the same in both British and American English. When there’s no alternative – such as color/colour, realize/realise, default to the British spelling. 
  
Quotation marks 
Use double quotes in body text for direct quotations. 
 
In long passages of speech, open quotes for every new paragraph, but close quotes only at the end of the final paragraph. 
 
Use single quotes: 
in headlines 
for unusual terms – only for the first mention 
when referring to words 
when referring to publications 
when referring to notifications such as emails or alerts 
 
Bullet points 
Use bullets to make text easier to read. Make sure that: 
you start your list with a colon 
you use lower case at the start of the bullet 
you don’t put a semicolon or full stop at the end of any bullets 
 
Use a single space after a full stop, comma or semicolon. 
 
 
 
Appendix 
 
Accessible and inclusive language 
Make sure everyone can understand your communication; complicated words and long sentences can be a barrier, particularly for: 
users whose first language is not English 
users with cognitive issues 
users with an impaired reading ability 
 
So: 
keep your language clear and simple 
use acronyms sparingly, and define the ones you do use 
 
And don’t: 
use jargon, figures of speech or undefined acronyms 
write long or complicated sentences 
use ampersands or other text symbols in place of words 
 
Examples of users with access needs 
 
User: Blind or partially sighted         
Access need: uses a screen reader or Braille translation software             
May find helpful: Language codes that will help the screen reader pronounce words correctly, or translate them accurately into Braille 
  
User: Dyslexic            
Access need: may struggle with longer paragraphs or more complicated sentences; may be using text-to-speech software 
May find helpful: Short, simple sentences, broken up with clear headings; language codes to help the software pronounce words correctly 
  
User: Non-native English speaker 
Access need: may have limited vocabulary or be using translation software; may be a British sign language speaker 
May find helpful: clear and simple language; language codes to aid translation software; video versions with captions and/or sign language 
  
User: Lower reading age       
Access need: has a lower vocabulary and can’t confidently read longer words  
May find helpful: clear and simple language 
  
User: Autistic spectrum disorder    
Access need: Finds idioms hard to understand    
May find helpful: Clear and simple language