With the lending frenzy of the past few years facing widespread condemnation, the personal loan market has been hit with a series of regulations aimed at promoting more responsible lending.

Lending criteria have become tighter, while lending bodies are being encouraged to behave more transparently, making sure that customers fully understand the terms of their loan arrangement.

And now advertising for personal loans looks set for a shake up, as Advertising Standards has ruled that many consumer credit promotions are irresponsible and a change to the way they advertise is needed.

A new social responsibility code introduced by the Advertising Standards Authority will mean that adverts for personal loans will become less tempting, with the common tagline 'combine all your existing debts into one easy monthly payment' to become a thing of the past.

Campaigners have long criticised personal loan adverts which are often shown during advert breaks on daytime TV and encourage homeowners to borrow thousands of pounds against the value of their property.

Whereas in the past these adverts could only be banned if they were misleading, Lord Chris Smith, who is chairman of the Advertising Standards Agency, says that now adverts which are too tempting can be banned.

"I get irritated when I think consumers are being sold something in a very tempting way which is going to have huge financial and personal consequences for them. That to me is irresponsible advertising," said Lord Chris Smith.

There was one advert in particular which Lord Chris Smith highlighted as using bad advertising practice of the type which would be banned under the new rules.

He described the advert to provide an example of what would be considered unacceptable in the future: "In the Picture Financial Services ad, there was a housewife surrounded by a busy household of kids getting ready for school and the husband was coming down the stairs and grabbing a slice of toast. Meanwhile she was on the phone saying, 'So, a loan of £25,000? Yes, that will be all right. Thank you very much,' and putting the phone down."

The advert portrays the process of taking out a loan as easy and carefree, not touching on the serious financial implications of taking out such a large loan and securing it against a property.

The people in the advert are instantly granted a loan of £25,000 over the phone without any serious discussion over the need for such a loan or such important considerations as how to repay the borrowed money.

Personal loan companies will be briefed by the Advertising Standards Agency on how they can advertise their products in the future so that they fit in with the new more responsible rules.

Lord Chris Smith also revealed that supermarket advertising in which different supermarkets claim that a particular basket of goods is cheaper in their shop would be hit by the new rules as they are often misleading.

"When you actually drill down what you find is some of the items are on special promotion on a very temporary basis [and] some of the items are not actually the same as the ones in the other shopping basket," he said.