Advertisements for financial products continue to mislead consumers, according to the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).
The FCA says that its research has found that promotions for financial products may mislead consumers, and that firms need to do more to ensure that they don’t. The regulator says that it has reviewed over 1,500 promotions for consumer credit products over the past few months, and has opened 227 cases about non-compliant promotions.
The regulator says that a quarter of these cases relate to advertisements for high-cost short-term credit, with many not prominently displaying a risk warning or representative interest rates, and that 80% of consumer credit cases to date relate to digital media comunications, such as websites, emails and text messages.
“It is important that all firms ensure financial promotions are fair, clear and not misleading so that customers are able to make informed decisions. We are disappointed to see standards fall short of what we expect, particularly in the consumer credit space,” said Clive Adamson, director of supervision at the FCA. “We believe that firms in this sector can do more to ensure financial promotions meet the standards we would expect and will continue to monitor performance in this area.”
The FCA says that firms have been responsive to ts concerns, and quick to make changes to promotions that do not meet its standards. It also says that it will continue to monitor promotions and take action to drive up standards.