EBS ads probed by standards authority

THE Advertising Standards Authority for Ireland confirmed last night it is investigating complaints from angry consumers about the latest EBS adverts for mortgages.

It suggests parents leverage their homes to provide children with first-time deposits to get them started in the pressurised housing market.

Angry callers to radio programmes said the adverts put a gun to the heads of parents who in their middle years have, for the first time, seen the financial pressures on them finally ease off.

Now EBS, through the new advertising campaign, is encouraging sons and daughters to pressurise their parents to provide them with deposits, they claimed.

While callers who phoned in radio programmes were very angry, the Advertising Standards Authority had only a "handful of callers" who complained about the adverts.

Last night, a spokeswoman for the authority said "we have requested copies of the ads so that we can view them for ourselves.

Once received they will be viewed and a ruling given as quickly as possible, she said.

At the core of the complaints is "The Family First Home Loan from EBS," as it is described.

EBS head of residential mortgages Kevin Johnson said the public response to the adverts had been overwhelmingly positive.

"We have had over 1,600 inquiries in three-and-a-half days and less than 20 were negative about the ads," he said.

He denied it was just another way to get money out into a slowing market.

Research found, Mr Johnson said, that 99% of parents reckoned their grown-up children could not afford the deposit for a house.

It found that 77% wanted to be able to provide their offspring with the money to get on the first rung of the housing ladder.