NatWest MoneySense service under attack

by Gill Montia

Story link: NatWest MoneySense service under attack

The Association of Mortgage Intermediaries (AMI) is demanding that NatWest withdraw a national TV advertisement campaign for the bank’s MoneySense financial advice service.

The AMI represents independent mortgages advisers across the UK and is following up on recent research by The Times newspaper, which claimed that some NatWest branches in London were more interested in selling products than fulfilling the promises of the advertising campaign.

NatWest launched its MoneySense brand last year saying it offered “straightforward, impartial guidance on understanding your money and managing your income and expenditure”.

The bank’s most recent advert shows a personal adviser asking a middle-aged couple if they have a clothing budget; it then cuts to a male customer discussing with a female adviser ways of reducing the cost of eating out.

The service is not supposed to be linked to endorsing or selling products although according to NatWest, advisers are allowed to give general advice about the different types of product on the market, which is probably just as well or they could otherwise stagnate with boredom.

However, research by The Times has led to accusations that MoneySense interviews are being used as little more than a sales pitch for NatWest products and the bank will now have to justify its promotion of a service which is apparently concerned with reducing outgoings by spending less on fashion and averting financial hardship by giving up a pudding course.