The ASA said that Loan Star's sponsored link on Google's search engine was misleading because viewers might think that the loan company was connected to the high street bank when it was not.
The advert said: "4.5% APR Loans - No Fees Debt consolidation Loans from £5K APR from 4.5%. Apply Online & Save! RBS.UK-Loan-Star.net".
"We considered that the inclusion of 'RBS' in the visual URL of the ad had given the impression that UK Loan Star.NET was affiliated with RBS," said the ASA ruling. "Because this was not the case, we considered the ad was misleading."
"We saw no evidence from the advertiser that they could arrange a loan with RBS at an APR of 4.5%, therefore we concluded that they had failed to substantiate the claim made in the ad," it said.
Loan Star did not reply to the ASA's request for a response to the complaint made against it.
