Credit Suisse Investment Services and UBS have revised their promotional materials for complex financial products in Australia following a regulatory crackdown on potentially misleading ads.

Credit Suisse Investment Services and UBS have revised their promotional materials for complex financial products in Australia following a regulatory crackdown on potentially misleading ads.

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission expressed concerns early in 2013 over ads for certain retail structured products, prompting the agency to have a look at how marketing materials are being carried out. In July 2013, the agency called out Commonwealth Bank and HSBC for their misleading statements.

In the case of Credit Suisse and UBS, the terms "contingent capital protection" and "conditional protection" in the promo materials for "capital at risk" structured projects were deemed inappropriate.

"Words like 'protection' imply a level of safety that is inconsistent with the nature of these products," said Peter Kell, ASIC deputy chairman. "Investors in these products have limited or no exposure to the positive performance of shares when prices rise, but downside risk in a falling market, often concentrated to the product's worst performing reference share."

Both banks are cooperating with the directive. Instreet Investment, which distributes a structured product issued by UBS, has already removed possibly misleading statements from its website and stopped giving the materials out through financial advisors.

"This should provide further encouragement for the industry to take a strong role in ensuring ads and product labelling help consumers make confident and informed decisions," added Kell.