A battle with the Advertising Standards Authority over the use of the word ''trust'' was well worth winning, according to the boss of Fisher & Paykel Finance.

Managing director Alastair Macfarlane said the ASA's decision to backtrack on an earlier ruling that FPF had advertised itself unfairly was the right one, considering the company's track record.

''We've been in this business a long time, we've weathered the storm of the global financial crisis, we've weathered the storm of the finance companies all going broke.''

FPF was defending itself against a complaint that the company had been misleading by using the phrases ''invest with confidence'' and ''for a quality investment with a company you can trust''.

The phases were used in an advertising banner on Yahoo! and on FPF's website.

S Hood's objection was based on the fact that FPF had a BB rating with Standard and Poor's, which the complainant said was defined by Wikipedia as having ''junk bond'' status.

FPF argued that BB was reasonable for non-bank deposit sector and that getting a rating to meet Reserve Bank requirements in 2009 did not make it any less trustworthy.

Macfarlane said there was a changing mood in the marketplace and regulators obviously wanted to see financial institutions using language that was easier to understand.

All the same, he said the company might be ''more selective'' about how it used the word ''trust'' in the future.

Last week the consumer lending company issued a prospectus to raise $300m in first ranking secured debt securities.

- © Fairfax NZ News