- NielsenWire

NEW YORK A sharp decrease in advertising spending by the mortgage and loan sectors led a 10 percent slide in expenditures across the entire financial services industry this year, according to an analysis released today by Nielsen.

Mortgage and loan companies, including Internet-based companies, combined to spend 62 percent -- or $778 million -- less on advertising during the first three quarters of 2008, compared with the same time period last year.

Overall, ad spending by financial services companies dropped from $5.9 billion in Q1-Q3 2007 to $5.3 billion through September of this year, according to Nielsen. Nielsen's data excludes outdoor and business-to-business magazine ad spending.

Spending by credit services companies and their Web-based services jumped by 22 percent from Q1 to Q3 2008, while investment services companies and their online-based services -- the industry's biggest ad spenders so far this year -- spent 6 percent more this year than in the first nine months of last year.

Credit card services companies, the second-biggest spenders among all financial services categories, saw their numbers remain relatively unchanged, dropping by less than 1 percent from Q1 to Q3 2008, compared with Q1-Q3 2007.

Adweek is a unit of the Nielsen Co.