[Financial Essay] Are Savings Bank Ads Shown on Weekday Daytime TV?

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Min-young] Is it possible to see savings bank advertisements on terrestrial broadcasts during weekday daytime?

According to the industry on the 31st, the Korea Federation of Savings Banks revised the advertising review regulations last month to allow image advertisements for savings banks on TV regardless of the time.

Until now, according to Article 24 of these regulations, TV advertisements were prohibited from 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. and 1 p.m. to 10 p.m. on weekdays, and from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Saturdays and public holidays. This regulation began when the National Assembly passed an amendment to the Loan Business Act in 2015, restricting broadcast advertisements by loan businesses, and the Political Affairs Committee suggested as a supplementary opinion that regulatory measures for broadcast advertisements for savings banks also be established.

Since then, the Federation and the Financial Services Commission have consulted and prepared measures to strengthen self-regulation on savings bank broadcast advertisements, due to concerns that savings bank advertisements excessively encourage borrowing.

This marks a relaxation of TV advertising regulations after about five years. The Federation revised the advertising review regulations last month to allow image advertisements at any time of day.

According to the regulations, image advertisements refer to activities that promote savings banks by expressing basic information or images to increase brand awareness, or simply informing about product names or product images. In other words, these are advertisements that introduce savings banks without disclosing interest rates, subscription conditions, interest charging times, fees, or insurance-related information.

So far, it is understood that savings banks are not preparing terrestrial image advertisements. A representative of a major savings bank said, “Currently, there are no separate image advertisements being prepared.” Another savings bank official said, “We do not yet know if we will advertise on TV this year.” Until now, these savings banks have focused on advertising through social network services (SNS) such as YouTube instead of TV advertisements.

Nevertheless, the industry consensus is that savings banks will eventually have no choice but to engage in terrestrial image advertisements to enhance competitiveness. In the mutual finance sector, the National Credit Union Federation of Korea and the National Federation of Saemaeul Geumgo have been airing many image advertisements on TV and in theaters. Since 2007, these sectors’ advertisements have expanded their user base to younger generations in their 30s and 40s, building a brand image of friendly and warm finance for the public. It is expected that savings banks, which share some customer groups, will also use advertisements to escape their negative image.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.