Background
Summary of Council decision:
Two issues were investigated, both of which were Not upheld.
Ad description
A TV ad for TSB featured a cartoon of a business woman carrying a cashbox to a TSB branch. A couple shook hands with a member of staff outside the branch before viewing a recently sold house on which trades people were working. A tradesman greeted his daughter and then goes to a bike shop operated by the business woman shown at the start of the ad. The business woman took her cashbox to the member of branch staff before the scene panned out to show a graphic of Britain followed by on-screen text which stated "TSB Local Banking for Britain".
The voice-over in the ad stated "TSB isn't like other big banks. That's because every penny TSB customers deposit stays right here in Britain, supporting loans or mortgages for other TSB customers. When those people spend money in their local economy it makes more work for the people who live there. The more work those people get, the more they thrive. The more they thrive, the more their local community thrives, and communities thriving right across Britain has to be a good thing for all of us, hasn't it?"
Issue
Move Your Money UK and a member of the public challenged whether:
1. the references to "local" in the ad were misleading, because they believed it implied lending decisions would be made locally and that money would be lent locally; and
2. the claim "That's because every penny TSB customers deposit stays right here in Britain, supporting loans or mortgages for other TSB customers" was misleading, because they said it was an inaccurate description of how the banking system worked and that technically TSB created new money supply.
Response
1. TSB Bank plc t/a TSB said that in the public domain and internally they defined their local banking model as meaning: that they were a retail and small business bank only; they operated in Britain only, meaning their bank would support UK businesses and individuals helping local communities to prosper; they were balanced and responsible; they were an established challenger; and that their core purpose was to support safe and sustainable economic growth in the communities they served across Britain. They did not believe the ad went beyond that core message. They said the three uses of the word "local" in the ad did not include suggestions of local decision making or local re-investment, and that neither were those suggestions part of the wider publicised definition of TSB's local banking model. They did not believe anything in the ad implied that lending decisions were made locally or that money was lent locally.
Clearcast said they interpreted the references to "local" based on how the average person without specialist banking knowledge would see them because this was how they would commonly be viewed. They said the ad focused on the fact that customers would spend their money locally and did not believe it was likely to mislead.
2. TSB said their financial model was to take every penny that was deposited with them and use it to help support their lending. They said there were three ways they raised monies: deposits from customers; wholesale funding; and capital in the form of cash from investors and profits generated that had not yet been issued as a dividend to their shareholders. They said that cash would be used over time to lend to customers and some would be held as liquidity to meet regulatory requirements. They said their regulators required them to hold a liquidity buffer in order to protect their customers to ensure they were always able to withdraw their deposits. This enabled banks to safely lend and borrow money from their customers. Therefore, every penny they took in from customers was used to support lending to their customers as individuals and small businesses. They said the claims in the ad were referring to what happened to the money deposited with TSB, and was not making any claims regarding what happened to the money supply as a result or any claims regarding how the banking system in general worked. They did not believe the average consumer was likely to be misled by the claims. They said the overall message of the ad was aiming to communicate that when customers deposited their money with TSB it was used to support their lending in Britain, and not for investment banking, overseas speculation or providing banking for large corporations.
Clearcast said they had interpreted the claim based on how the average person without specialist banking knowledge would see it because this was how they would commonly be viewed. They believed that the fact TSB did not have an investment banking arm supported the claim.
Assessment
1. Not upheld
The ASA considered that the two references to "local" in the voice-over clearly referred to money lent by TSB being spent locally, and that the average consumer would not interpret them as a reference to where lending decisions were made or whether money was lent locally or nationally. We also considered that the claim "TSB Local Banking for Britain" would largely be seen as puffery, and that the overall message of the ad made clear what TSB meant by "local banking". We therefore concluded that the references to "local" were not misleading.
On this point we investigated the ad under BCAP Code rules 3.1 3.1 Advertisements must not materially mislead or be likely to do so. (Misleading advertising) and 3.9 3.9 Broadcasters must hold documentary evidence to prove claims that the audience is likely to regard as objective and that are capable of objective substantiation. The ASA may regard claims as misleading in the absence of adequate substantiation. (Substantiation) but did not find it in breach.
2. Not upheld
We considered that consumers would understand from the claim "That's because every penny TSB customers deposit stays right here in Britain, supporting loans or mortgages for other TSB customers" that TSB was not an investment bank and that it did not engage in overseas speculation, in contrast with some other banks, and that customers' deposits would therefore be used to support lending to other TSB customers in the UK. We did not consider consumers would interpret the claim as an explanation of how the banking system worked. We considered that because TSB only provided banking for individuals and small business, and did not engage in other banking activities, it was not misleading to state that all deposits were used for supporting loans and mortgages. We therefore concluded that the claim was not misleading.
On this point we investigated the ad under BCAP Code rules 3.1 3.1 Advertisements must not materially mislead or be likely to do so. (Misleading advertising) and 3.9 3.9 Broadcasters must hold documentary evidence to prove claims that the audience is likely to regard as objective and that are capable of objective substantiation. The ASA may regard claims as misleading in the absence of adequate substantiation. (Substantiation) but did not find it in breach.
Action
No further action necessary.
