Misleading savings account headline

ASIC has announced that RAMS Financial Group Pty Limited (RAMS) has changed the advertising for its current RAMS Saver account campaign following ASIC concerns that ads promoting the online savings account were potentially misleading or likely to mislead.

The ads featured a prominent headline claim offering a 5.75% interest rate, followed with smaller statements that it included a ‘0.8% p.a. Bonus’ and ‘monthly deposit conditions apply’. The campaign was widely promoted using online, television, and outdoor advertising.

ASIC was concerned that the ads left out important information and failed to give enough prominence to the conditions associated with the 0.8% bonus. Of particular concern to ASIC was that the ads did not disclose that in order to achieve the monthly bonus rate, consumers could not make any withdrawals from the account during the month.

The RAMS Saver account is issued by Westpac Banking Corporation and distributed by RAMS.

Advertising must be accurate and not misleading (either through misstatement or omission).

 

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