A financial promotion that is carried out by letter, email, website, or through an advertisement in newspaper. Financial institutions are required in some jurisdictions, particularly the U.K, to ensure that the promotion meets a number of rules in order to convey clear, fair, and informative business communications with clients. For example, a non-real-time promotion may be an advertisement placed in a local newspaper. This ad must contain the name of the firm and either an address or a contract point from which an address is available. This type of promotion must meet a set of criteria, including: using plain and intelligible language, not disguising or misrepresenting the real intention of the promotion, making sure it is free of any false indications (e.g. the availability of a specific mortgage product), presenting contrasted facts in a fair and balanced way, ensuring that statements of facts are accurate and substantiable (i.e. can be substantiated), not omitting any information that prevents the promotion from being clear, fair and not misleading, etc.

Banks and financial institutions are particularly required when including details of products with their promotions to communicate the overall cost, i.e. an annual percentage rate (APR).