Concerns about payday loan providers have been a hot topic recently.

Unusually, the current laws for financial advertising mean that the ASA shares responsibility for regulating these kinds of ads with other bodies, including the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) and, from April 2014, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).

While the ASA is primarily responsible for dealing with complaints about offensive or irresponsible payday loan ads, the OFT takes the lead on concerns about how and when cost information - e.g. around interests rates - have been displayed, as set out in law. The FCA has proposed a set of new rules around high-cost short-term credit that will apply to payday loan ads, which it will implement when it takes over from the OFT. You can read about them here.

The ASA (on behalf of Ofcom) can deal with all complaints about payday loan ads that appear on TV and radio. We’ll pass complaints about ‘technical’ requirements in other media to the OFT and, in future, the FCA.

We know that this arrangement can seem a little complicated. So, if you’ve seen an ad for a payday lender that you think is problematic, please don’t hesitate to get in touch. Even if you’re not sure whether the ASA can deal with your concern, if we can’t help we can direct you to the right body.

The Committee of Advertising Practice, the body that writes the Advertising Codes which the ASA administers, recently published new guidance for advertisers on what they need to do to ensure their payday loan ads are socially responsible. You can view this guidance here.

The new guidance highlights some of the rulings the ASA has made against payday lenders in the past, including a recent ruling where we banned a payday loan ad by Cash Lady, featured Kerry Katona, which was irresponsible because it made references to her past financial difficulties, and implied it was more convenient and desirable to get a loan through payday lenders than high street banks. You can read the ruling here.


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