An advert from Nationwide Building Society has been banned for misleading potential customers into thinking the financial institution would not be closing its bank branches, unlike its rivals.
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) investigated TV, radio and press ads featuring actor Dominic West playing the head of a fictional rival bank of Nationwide.
According to the regulator, the building society’s commercials received 282 complaints.
One of these complaints came from Santander, who understood that Nationwide had recently closed or reduced opening hours at a number of branches.
As such, the building society’s adverts were challenged for being potentially misleading to consumers watching them.
In the television commercial, Mr West references his fictional bank making cutbacks and closing one of its branches.
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A Nationwide ad had been banned for "misleading" consumers
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When a colleague notes that Nationwide is not closing branches, West replies: “We’re not Nationwide, are we?”
Towards the end of the commercial, a voiceover states: “Unlike the big banks, we’re not closing our branches.”
Furthermore, on-screen text reads: “Publicly shared branch closures at Lloyds, bank of Scotland/Halifax, NatWest, Barclays, Santander and HSBC.”
A similar conversation is used as part of the radio ad which claims Nationwide is not closing its branches “unlike the big banks”.
Similarly, the press ad has the text: “Going, Going, Nowhere” with small print at the bottom of the ad saying “If we have a branch in your town or city, we’ll still be there until at least 2026.”
The building society recently strengthened its “Branch Promise” which is a pledge to not leave a town or city where there was not other Nationwide branch until at least 2026.
Nationwide informed the ASA that 20 of its branches in the last 18 months, including two last year.
It also cited the building society had the largest remaining number of branches of 10 banks and had closed the smallest percentage of its estate.
However, the regulator said viewers were more likely to miss qualifications within the commercials that Nationwide’s “Branch Promise” would be in place until at least 2026.
As well as this, Santander is understood to have closed fewer branches than Nationwide in the 12 months before the ad campaign.
Notably, Santander had not announced any further bank branches at the time the commercial was originally seen.
The ASA said: “We acknowledged that over a 10-year period, in comparison to other financial institutions, Nationwide had closed the smallest percentage of any financial institution’s estate.
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Bank branch closures are continuing at an 'alarming rate', according to Which?GETTY “However, we noted that they had nevertheless closed 20% of their estate, which equated to 152 branches, and we considered that was a significant number that had been permanently closed.
“We also understood that since Nationwide had launched their original Branch Promise, in the 18 months since July 2022 they had permanently closed 20 branches. Of those 20, 14 had been closed in the 12 months preceding the campaign, with two of them having been closed in 2023.”
“As above, we understood that Nationwide’s Branch Promise was only valid until 2026, at which time Nationwide could begin to close branches permanently.
“We considered those factors relating to previous, recent branch closures and the effect on future branches in the long term were likely to be significant to consumers when making decisions about whether to choose Nationwide, in the context of the claims made in the ads that Nationwide were not closing their branches.
In its ruling, the regulator said the ads must not appear again in their current form and Nationwide should “not mislead” going forward.
A spokesman for the building society said: “We recognise the ASA’s decision and are delighted to have the opportunity to make even clearer our now extended branch promise to keep every branch open until the start of 2028.
“The investment we have made to keep branches open means we now have more than any other brand and are the last one standing in more than 90 communities.”