ASA Adjudication on Barclays Bank plc

Ad

A TV ad, for Barclays Credit Focus service, stated “If you run a small business, then you know … that you spend half your time chasing payments around … With the credit checking service from Barclays, every small business like yours can find out upfront who’s good for their money … Credit Focus from Barclays. Take one small step to improving your cash flow.”

Issue

A viewer challenged whether the ad was misleading because it did not state that the service was updated weekly and might not show the most up-to-date information. She pointed out that a company she checked continued to be shown as having a below-average credit risk several days after it had gone into administration.

BCAP TV Code

Response

Barclays said their Credit Focus product included a credit checking service, via a web-based facility, to enable small businesses to check in advance how safe it was to conduct business with, and effectively extend a form of credit to, new or existing customers.   They explained that the three main UK credit reference agencies obtained information from a variety of sources, including lenders, courts and public records.  Information was continually updated on databases for all three agencies but there would be a period between when an event such as a bankruptcy order occurred and the point at which it was logged onto the database following the supply of the information from the source.  

Barclays explained that the information on Credit Focus was supplied by one of the three main UK credit reference agencies and as soon as it was entered or updated on the agencys systems, that would be reflected on Barclays' site, with no delay.  They believed customers would not expect the information on the Credit Focus service to be current to the minute when an actual event occurred, as no such service existed, but would believe it to be the most up-to-date information available to the public at the time of their request, which it was.  They pointed out that when a company went into administration it would take some time for that information to be made public, and, to illustrate that, they provided a letter they had sent to a customer who was a creditor and therefore would have been notified of the administration order prior to its being officially lodged with the credit reference agencies.  They considered that it was not necessary for the ad to qualify that "upfront" did not mean up to the minute, i.e. representative of real time in relation to when an event occurred, as they believed customers would not draw that conclusion from the use of the word.

Clearcast endorsed Barclays' comments, and said they believed the ad was not misleading because the information supplied to the Credit Focus service was the quickest available from a credit reference agency and was also the quickest that was publicly available.  They considered that the ad did not imply that the service was able to provide immediate, real time information, but, rather, simply claimed to be a useful and effective tool for small businesses in checking credit risks.  They said the final claim "Take one small step to improving your cash flow" reinforced that, because it was not an absolute claim and made clear that the service was an aid to improving one's cash flow.  The claim therefore implied that it could be just one service to use when conducting business.  They believed that most viewers would understand the claim as such rather than the complainant's interpretation.

Assessment

Not upheld

The ASA understood that, by using Credit Focus, businesses could access potential customers' credit status at any time and would then receive weekly updates on any significant credit events relating to customers.  We noted the complainant experienced a delay of four working days between official documents being lodged with Companies House and updated information appearing on the Credit Focus website.  We noted, because she was a creditor of the company in question, she was aware of when the documents were lodged, but we understood that it was standard UK practice for creditors to be notified before credit reference agencies, and therefore such information would not generally be available to the public until the ratings change had been made and communicated to credit ratings agencies.  We also understood from Companies House that if information was submitted electronically, then it would take a maximum of three working days to become publicly available, but was usually available within 24 hours.  If information was submitted via paper, then it would take between three and four working days.  We considered, therefore, that the delay experienced by the complainant did not appear to be atypical.  

We noted the ad made no claims about the frequency at which the credit information was updated. We considered that viewers would understand that there was likely to be some delay between the occurrence of a credit event and a credit reference agency's database being updated.  We also considered that, in the context of the general claims made about the service, they would infer from the phrase "find out upfront who's good for their money" that they could find out credit information before entering into business with a customer, and that they would not rely on the service to provide up-to-the-minute information.  We concluded that the ad was unlikely to mislead.

We investigated the ad under CAP (Broadcast) TV Advertising Standards Code rules 5.1.1, 5.1.2, 5.1.3 (Misleading advertising) and 5.2.3 (Qualifications) but did not find it in breach.

Action

No further action necessary.

Adjudication of the ASA Council (Broadcast)