NCUA’s official advertising statement: The exceptions

In our compliance inbox, we often get asked about advertising requirements. The questions can range from whether a particular message is considered an advertisement to the specific content requirements for advertisements. If any of you have ever asked us an advertising question, you probably got some version of this somewhere in the response: “‘Advertisement’ is defined very broadly in [insert applicable regulation here] to cover any commercial message that promotes your [insert product or service here].” So, the basic point is that if your credit union puts out any message about a product or service, it’s probably going to be an advertisement.

In addition to the rules in the applicable regulation, NCUA also has some general advertising rules. The basic point of these rules is that your ad must be accurate. But there is one unique thing about NCUA’s advertising rules. The other regulations that govern advertisements, such as Truth in Savings and Regulation Z, do not require credit unions to always have a particular disclosure in an advertisement. The rules instead work around “trigger terms” – if a credit union states a particular terms in the advertisement, certain additional disclosures are required. The unique thing about NCUA’s advertising rule is that it actually requires a disclosure to appear in all advertisements – the official advertising statement.

 

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