The Financial Services Authority (FSA) is set to raise awareness of the standards it sets for financial advertising and more rigorously enforce them, it said in a policy paper released today.
It will do this by publishing regular bulletins for consumers on how it is monitoring financial advertising.
The FSA said it will also be encouraging consumers to report advertisements they feel are misleading by setting up a hotline for them to ring.
The FSA has reminded firms that "they are responsible for ensuring their advertisements are clear, fair and not misleading and must present a balanced picture of the product".
The FSA consumer director, Christine Farnish, said problems they would be concentrating on are: "a lack of balance between the benefits and drawbacks of a product; claims that can lead to unrealistic expectations; and key information that gets buried in the small print".
