UK financial watchdog FCA required firms to change or remove 8,582 promotions in 2021 in order to protect consumers. The number is 14 times bigger than what was taken down in 2021.
The UK regulator also issued more than 1,800 alerts to help prevent consumers from losing their money to scams.
The FCA stated in the official press release:
Social media remains a major focus for the regulator’s work in combatting misleading promotions. The FCA has worked closely with several Big Tech companies to change their advertising policies to only allow financial promotions that have been approved by FCA-authorised firms, but more needs to be done by tech companies to protect consumers.
FCA highlighted that t has made improvements to the digital tools it uses to detect problem firms and problematic advertisements, allowing the regulator to work on a larger amount of cases compared with 2021.
‘Fin-fluencers’ were pointed out as a growing concern as the regulator warned that unauthorized individuals should not give advice on certain investments. Over the past year, the regulator has already taken action against several social media influencers.
Sarah Pritchard, Executive Director, Markets said:
Our expectations remain the same. Financial promotions must be fair, clear and not misleading. What has changed is the FCA’s approach. By drawing on better technology, we’re finding poor quality or misleading ads quicker. And where we find them, we’re stepping in to make firms improve them or remove them entirely.
This year, we will continue to put the pressure on people using social media to illegally promote investments, which put people’s hard-earned money at risk.
