ABSTRACT
The Code of Conduct for the Advertising of Interest Bearing Accounts was drawn up by the Building Societies Association, the British Bankers Association and the Finance House Association; it is supported by the Bank of England and the Building Societies Commission. This will be overseen by the Financial Servcies Authority once the legislation comes into force. The code applies to the advertising of all interest bearing accounts maintained within the UK. For the purpose of the code, the term advertisement includes press and broadcast advertisements, direct marketing, window displays, posters, brochures, leaflets and automated teller machine displays. The principal objective of the code is to ensure that building societies, banks and other financial institutions use a common terminology to describe the various types of interest rates on offer in their advertisements. The code contains detailed provisions regarding the advertising of interest rates and the information to be included where such rates are quoted. The code also sets out the information to be included to indicate the type of deposit being advertised. Advertisements inviting deposits by immediate coupon response must include the full terms and conditions or state that they are available on request and must state the address where the advertiser can be contacted.
