The FCA has issued a press release stating that consumer credit firms need to do more to ensure that their adverts and promotions do not mislead potential customers.
The FCA has examined over 500 advertisements for a range of consumer credit products and has found a number of examples where key information which should have been included in the advertisement was either missing or difficult to find.
The key FCA rule is that any advert must be clear, fair and not misleading for consumers. The FCA found examples where consumers were encouraged to hit the ‘apply’ button for a product before having a chance to access important information. Other examples which the FCA found included, that firms were:
- targeting young audiences with promotions for products that consumers must be over the age of 18 to use, such as distributing branded colouring-in sheets with their pamphlets for high-cost, short-term loans;
- claiming that their product would help repair credit ratings; and
- claiming a product will clear a customer’s debt, when in fact it is just substituting one debt for another.
View Consumer credit firms must raise advertising standards, says FCA, 16 May 2014
