Equity Release Supermarket launches its first TV ad this week, which showcases the platform’s price comparison tool, smartER.

It says the national campaign, which includes slots on Channel 4 and Sky, will bring the software, launched last September, to a “wider audience”.

The fintech firm, founded in 2008, provides advice about lifetime loans, an online calculator, as well as quotes from such lenders as Aviva, LV= and Crown equity release.

The ad features a character called Helen, who sets out to compare the entire equity release market.

Equity Release Supermarket founder and chief executive Mark Gregory says: “We have always made it our mission to be as open and transparent as possible, while also providing the digital tools they need to understand how equity release and later life lending could give them the financial freedom they deserve.”

He adds: “The Financial Conduct Authority’s Consumer Duty principles set out higher and clearer standards of consumer protection across financial services and requires firms to put their customer’s needs first – which is exactly what smartER has done, by giving customers the information they need, at the right time and presented in a way they can understand.”

Also, homeowners took out 13,452 new equity release plans in the third quarter with total lending topping a record £1.7bn, according to data released by the Equity Release Council today.   

The body says this type of loan, among property owners aged 55 or over, topped 13,000 for the first time, coming in 8% higher than the previous quarter.