Barbican Bond ISA review - Another misleading investment

jimjames

Looks like yet another ISA being promoted by reviewmyISA that is being compared to cash and risks not being properly listed. When will the FCA actually take some action

https://damn-lies-and-statistics.blogspot.com/2019/06/barbican-isa-bond-scam-review.html

eskbanker

While I agree that this is yet another example of deceptive marketing that the FCA needs to get a grip of, a quick glance at the home page of the product itself finds the key phrase 'your capital is at risk' mentioned no fewer than eight times, so anyone choosing to skip past all those deserves all they have coming to them IMHO!

DrSyn

I can only agree. When the best 5 year rate covered by the FSCS is 2.75%, this 7% is your first warning sign!

I expect these adverts would quickly stop, if the FCA stipulated they started with the following warning in large letters.

1. If your money is not in a bank of a building society covered by the FSCS protection, your money will be at risk no matter what the advert says.

2. The current FSCS protection limit is £85000.

3. The best current 5 year interest rate protected by the FSCS is about 2.5%.

Malthusian

eskbanker wrote: »

While I agree that this is yet another example of deceptive marketing that the FCA needs to get a grip of, a quick glance at the home page of the product itself finds the key phrase 'your capital is at risk' mentioned no fewer than eight times, so anyone choosing to skip past all those deserves all they have coming to them IMHO!

True but irrelevant in the context of the ad that is the subject of the thread. The "Mark's Money Matters" ad has to stand on its own. Risk warnings that appear later on a different website don't come into it.

Proclaiming FCA authorisation as if it is some sort of guarantee and claiming "All funds are asset-backed" while not making it clear with equal prominence that this is an ultra-high-risk investment with risk of 100% loss is misleading.

And Barbican pays an undisclosed commission to Mark's Money Matters (they're not putting up these ads for free) so they are responsible as well.

eskbanker

Malthusian wrote: »

True but irrelevant in the context of the ad that is the subject of the thread. The "Mark's Money Matters" ad has to stand on its own. Risk warnings that appear later on a different website don't come into it.

The thread title is "Barbican Bond ISA review - Another misleading investment" so it doesn't seem unreasonable to comment on the ISA rather than simply the advert.

However, we're splitting hairs here - as I said above, I agree that the ad is misleading! But ultimately punters lose money by buying unsuitable products, not (directly) by reading adverts, despite the significant role played by the latter....

jimjames

I'd not seen the website, only the advert and the information provided via that.

I did a bit more digging and the page "Mark's money matters" looks to be run by a friendly "Mark" who posts photos of him & his wife along with tips about flights and general chit-chat and claims to be a retired bank manager living in Cotswolds.

Curiously Facebook insight shows that it's managed from Ukraine and Estonia as well as the UK so maybe Mark isn't who he seems. Wonder if it's stock photos?