A broker, who wished to remain unnamed, wrote to MI with support for the campaign, which is aiming to develop an ‘industry standard’ for Financial Promotions, after she contacted the FSA in search of help regar-ding an advertisement for her firm.
Unsure as to whether the advert was compliant she contacted the FSA Financial Promotions hotline and was told the line was purely for reporting adverts which are non-compliant. She was referred to the regulator’s Firms Contact Centre.
She said: “I contacted the Centre to ask if it would look at my advert and confirm one way or the other if it was compliant to which they informed me it didn’t offer this service and didn’t have a department that could help. The person told me to reference the manual. I explained I wasn’t convinced that I had interpreted the rules correctly but the girl simply reiterated her previous comments.”
“An industry standard is a great idea and I would be in full support as I feel the rules are very confusing,” she added.
Paul Hearnden, managing director of My Mortgage Direct, said: “This sounds like a cracking idea and I’ll definitely back it. We need more of these common-sense approaches rather than being baffled by FSA rules and interpretations.”
Ian Crampton, sales director at Ferndown Limited, commented: “I give my full backing to the campaign which highlights the disgraceful and ambiguous advertising campaigns that are shown repeatedly, especially at a time when I’m trying to watch Sky Sports News. In fact with all these advertising campaigns on his channels Rupert Murdoch should be forced to submit an RMAR in line with the rest of the financial industry.”
To support or comment on the ‘Promoting the Standard’ campaign please contact Scott Philipson at: [email protected]
