In a regulated industry, the law requires certain statements and prohibits certain claims. It does not say what the company promises, or in which words. When these choices are not made before writing, they are settled text by text, during legal review. This article looks at marketing compliance in banking and credit, insurance and health. For each sector, it sets out what the rules require, and what to decide beforehand so that legal review covers only new wording.
What regulation requires, and what it leaves to the company
The texts that govern communication in these three sectors set two things: mandatory statements, and limits such as the ban on misleading information. They do not choose the offer to put forward, the promise or the brand’s vocabulary.
These choices belong to the company. If they stay open, the legal department meets them again in every text and reviews them for risk.
Banking and credit marketing
In France, the Code de la consommation (French Consumer Code) requires specific statements in credit advertising. Article L312-5 (in French) provides that any advertisement for consumer credit, except on radio, carries the following statement: “Un crédit vous engage et doit être remboursé. Vérifiez vos capacités de remboursement avant de vous engager.” (A loan commits you and must be repaid. Check that you can repay before you commit.) For home loans, Article L313-3 requires every advertising document to state that the borrower has a ten-day reflection period.
This is a real case, anonymised. For an institution in the home loan sector, supervised by the banking regulator, we set several rules before writing its campaign:
- vocabulary: the words that describe its role accurately, and those that are legally wrong for its business;
- one source per claim: every claim in the campaign refers to its source;
- the list of sensitive wording, which goes through the legal department before any use;
- wording the institution has already published, reused as it stands, without fresh approval.
Under these rules, only sensitive wording that has not yet been published goes to the legal department.
Insurance marketing
In the European Union, Directive (EU) 2016/97 on insurance distribution governs the messages of insurers and intermediaries. Its Article 17 requires all information addressed to customers, “including marketing communications”, to be “fair, clear and not misleading”. It adds that marketing communications must always be clearly identifiable as such.
This is a real case, anonymised. Since June 2026, we have been writing the articles on an insurer’s health blog. They cite the cover provided by its policies and health figures. Three measures frame their approval:
- a sign-off sheet, sent after delivery, which lists the points only the insurer can decide: the scope of cover, a reimbursement cap, a medical claim;
- questions left in square brackets in the text, at the exact place where the answer belongs; the answer replaces the question before publication;
- a review before each delivery, which picks out any wording that could read as personalised advice.
We delivered the first batch, eight articles, in early July, and the sign-off sheet at the end of that month. The insurer’s decisions arrived in early September, for seven articles, once its departments had given their views. We delivered the seven corrected articles five working days later, after removing five figures whose source could not be established.
Pharmaceutical and health communication
In France, the Code de la santé publique (French Public Health Code) governs advertising for medicines. Under Article L5122-2 (in French; our translation), such advertising “must not be misleading or undermine the protection of public health” and “must present the medicine or product objectively and encourage its proper use”. Article L5122-8 makes advertising to the public for certain medicines subject to prior approval by the Agence nationale de sécurité du médicament et des produits de santé (ANSM), the French medicines regulator. This approval is called the visa de publicité.
Validated health information can then circulate without its source. This is a real case, anonymised: in 2026, we audited the answers of ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Copilot on the topics of a public prevention body. They reproduced its content almost word for word, but the source was missing or cited without a link. Readers received the information without being able to check who had established it.
On each page, a health organisation can state who established the information and when. A reader who consults the page then knows where the information comes from.
What to decide before legal review
From the three cases, we draw five decisions, to take before writing and to record in a shared document:
- vocabulary: the exact words to describe the offer, and those that are wrong or prohibited;
- sources: one source for each figure and each verifiable claim;
- wording already approved, reusable without another review;
- the list of points to settle, sent with each text to the department responsible for them;
- the author and date of each piece of information, visible on the page.
Vocabulary and promise depend on the offer and the brand voice. Our article on structuring your offer architecture sets out the questions to settle, and the Brand Voice Framework describes the method for defining the voice.
Free diagnostic
ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Copilot already answer your customers’ questions about your loans, your policies or your treatments. Yet these answers do not go through your legal department. The AI footprint diagnostic shows what these tools say about your company, question by question. It is free: request your company’s diagnostic.
Frequently asked questions about regulated industry marketing
What is regulated communication?
Regulated communication is subject to rules specific to its sector: mandatory statements, a ban on misleading information and, in some cases, prior approval. Credit advertising, the messages of insurance distributors and advertising for medicines all fall into this category.
Which statement is mandatory in a credit advertisement?
In France, Article L312-5 of the Code de la consommation (French Consumer Code) requires every advertisement for consumer credit, except on radio, to carry the statement “Un crédit vous engage et doit être remboursé. Vérifiez vos capacités de remboursement avant de vous engager.” (A loan commits you and must be repaid. Check that you can repay before you commit.) For home loans, Article L313-3 requires advertising to state the ten-day reflection period available to the borrower.
How can you reduce back-and-forth with the legal department?
Settle the vocabulary, the sources and the list of wording already approved before writing. Attach to each text the list of points the legal department must decide. Its review can then start from those points and from the new wording.
The Clarity engagement settles your vocabulary, your promise and your approved wording with you, before writing. The first step is to describe your offer and your brand voice.