Lloyds Banking Group (LBG) has been censured by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) over a national press advertisement after a complaint that it was misleading.

It was claimed that the newspaper advert implied the bank had donated £19.5 billion to social housing projects rather than providing commercial loans.

The promotional material appeared in The Times on 25 March and featured a photo of a black horse galloping past new homes with building work underway (main image).

Large text said ‘£19.5 billion for social housing. And that’s just the start’ while smalelr text underneath stated, ‘Everyone deserves a safe place to call home. That’s why we’ve provided £19.5 billion to the social housing sector since 2018’. And, at the foot of the advert, alongside the bank’s logo, it said ‘Helping Britain Prosper.’

The complainant claimed it implied that Lloyds Banking Group had donated £19.5 billion to social housing projects, rather than providing it through commercial lending and investment arrangements.

Upheld

Defending the ad, BBG argued that Times’ readers were sufficiently sophisticated to understand it referred to commercial lending rather than charitable donations.

It contested: “The average reader of The Times would have understood that LBG was a major UK banking group, not a charitable or philanthropic organisation.”

The bank said it used the generic term ‘provided’ deliberately and pointed to its 2024 Annual Report, which confirmed around £20 billion in funding to the social housing sector since 2018 through loans, investment and capital markets activity.

We considered readers were likely to interpret the claims to mean that LBG had made a significant financial contribution to the social housing sector.”

The ASA ruled, however, that the advertisement’s presentation gave the overall impression the money had been donated rather than provided through commercial arrangements.

It said: “In the absence of further qualification, we considered readers were likely to interpret the claims to mean that LBG had made a significant financial contribution to the social housing sector.”

The ASA upheld the complaint and concluded the advertisement breached CAP Code rules on misleading advertising.

And it concluded: “The ad must not appear again in the form complained of. We told Lloyds Bank plc t/a Lloyds Banking Group not to misleadingly imply that they had donated money to social housing projects when that was not the case,” the ASA says.