Google Expands Verification Program For Financial Services Ads To More Regions

Last year, Google began tightening controls around financial products and service ads in the UK. Well, now Google is expanding those policies to more regions starting with Australia, Singapore and Taiwan. You can see the full policy over here.

Google announced it is now “rolling out this policy in phases, beginning with Australia, Singapore and Taiwan.” Google said the verification process will require financial services advertisers in these markets “to demonstrate that they are authorized by their relevant financial services regulator, and have completed Google’s advertiser verification program in order to begin promoting their products and services.”

Advertisers will be able to apply for verification at the end of June, and the policy will go into effect on August 30, 2022. Advertisers that have not completed the new verification process by this date will no longer be allowed to promote financial services, the company added.

Google said the UK launch of this policy was a success, saying they have “seen a pronounced decline in reports of ads promoting financial scams.” “The success of this program in the UK demonstrates that this is a meaningful and impactful solution to safeguarding people online and gives us the confidence to expand verification to additional countries,” Alejandro Borgia, Director, Ads Privacy and Safety at Google wrote.

The policy covers:

• Financial products and service disclosures
• Personal loans
• High APRO personal loans
• Loan modifications
• Binary options
• Complex speculative financial products
• Credit repair services
• Debt services
• Cryptocurrencies
• and more…

This will be coming to more regions soon, Google said “we plan to further expand these verification requirements to advertisers in additional countries and regions.”

Forum discussion at Twitter.