If you've ever wished you understood more about how money matters work but didn't know who to ask or where to find answers in language you could understand, help is at hand from the Financial Services Authority, the independent financial watchdog.

FSA Learn Online is a new interactive web-based service from the Financial Services Authority, designed to help consumers learn the basics of personal finance. It provides a comprehensive introduction to financial services and products, covering three sections:

• How to work out what you might need.
• The different types of financial products that are available, from borrowing to insurance, saving, investment and pensions.
• Questions to ask before buying.

The programme will help you get to grips with the concepts underlying financial products. It doesn't promote named products or tell you that one company's product is better than another's. At the end of each topic there is an opportunity for you to test yourself so that you can make sure you have understood what you have read.

Deborah Arnott, FSA Head of Consumer Education Services said: "Part of our job as the independent financial watchdog is to increase public understanding of the financial system. We've developed an ongoing programme of consumer education to help us achieve this.

"Our new resource, Learn Online, does not replace professional financial advice. The key objective is to help young people and adults become questioning and informed consumers of financial services and manage their finances effectively."

Learn Online can be found by clicking on the new 'Teaching and Learning' section of the Consumer Help website www.fsa.gov.uk/consumer and then clicking on 'Resources for Adults'. A range of other FSA resources for teachers and parents is also available in the 'Teaching and Learning' section. http://www.fsa.gov.uk/consumer