Nationwide's adverts, featuring actor Dominic West, have been banned for misleading viewers into believing that the bank, unlike its competitors, would not be closing any of its branches.

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) investigated the TV, radio and press advertisements after receiving 282 complaints. One complaint came from Santander, who pointed out that Nationwide had recently closed or reduced opening hours at several branches.

In the TV advert, West jokes about a large bill for a company lunch before discussing cutbacks and branch closures. When a colleague mentions that Nationwide, visible from their window across the road, is not closing branches, West replies: "We're not Nationwide, are we? ".

A voiceover at the end states: "Unlike the big banks, we're not closing our branches," while on-screen text reads: "Publicly shared branch closures at Lloyds, bank of Scotland /Halifax, Natwest, Barclays, Santander and HSBC."

The radio advert features a similar conversation, with the colleague saying: "Boss, news from Nationwide," and "They've just confirmed they're keeping branches open," before a voiceover states: "Unlike the big banks, we're not closing our branches."

The ad had these words: "Going, Going, Nowhere" and "Unlike the big banks, we're not closing our branches". There was small writing at the bottom that said: "If we have a branch in your town or city, we'll still be there until at least 2026."

Nationwide said it launched its original 'Branch Promise' back in 2019. They said they would not leave a town or city without a Nationwide branch. In 2023, they promised again to keep all their branches open until at least 2026. The bank told the ASA that they had shut down 20 branches in the last year and a half.

This included two in 2023. But they also said they still have more branches than 10 other banks. And they have closed fewer of their branches than others. They also supplied an article from consumer magazine Which?, that recommended Nationwide as a building society for consumers who still valued face-to-face contact.

But the ASA said that people might not see the part of the ad that says the 'Branch Promise' only lasts until 'at least 2026'. They also found out that Santander had closed fewer branches than Nationwide in the year before the ad.

And when the ad was shown, Santander hadn't said they were going to close any branches later on. The ASA did say: "We acknowledged that over a 10-year period, in comparison to other financial institutions, Nationwide had closed the smallest percentage of any financial institution's estate."

The ASA said: "However, we noted that they had nevertheless closed 20% of their estate, which equated to 152 branches, and we considered that was a significant number that had been permanently closed. We also understood that since Nationwide had launched their original Branch Promise, in the 18 months since July 2022 they had permanently closed 20 branches.

'Of those 20, 14 had been closed in the 12 months preceding the campaign, with two of them having been closed in 2023. As above, we understood that Nationwide's Branch Promise was only valid until 2026, at which time Nationwide could begin to close branches permanently."

The ASA added: "We considered those factors relating to previous, recent branch closures and the effect on future branches in the long term were likely to be significant to consumers when making decisions about whether to choose Nationwide, in the context of the claims made in the ads that Nationwide were not closing their branches."

The ASA concluded: "Because we considered that consumers would understand from the ads that Nationwide would not be closing branches in the long-term future and that they had not recently closed branches, we concluded that the ads were misleading."

The watchdog ruled that the ads must not appear again in their current form, adding: "We told Nationwide Building Society not to mislead in relation to the closure of their branches."

A Nationwide spokesperson said: "We recognise the ASA's decision and are delighted to have the opportunity to make even clearer our now extended branch promise to keep every branch open until the start of 2028. The investment we have made to keep branches open means we now have more than any other brand and are the last one standing in more than 90 communities."