Guidance for memes, reels and gaming streams promoting financial
services has been published by the Financial Conduct Authority
(FCA) today. The FCA has set out how adverts across social media
channels must be fair, clear and not misleading, meaning they
must have balance and carry the right risk warnings so people can
make well informed financial decisions.
Social media has become a central part of firms’ marketing
strategies. Firms are on the hook for all their promotions and
the FCA has warned they need to ensure influencers they work with
communicate to their followers in the right way.
And influencers are reminded that promoting a financial product
without the right approval from an FCA-authorised person could be
a criminal offence. Consumers need to be alert to dubious adverts
and scams online, but it is important that influencers ensure
they’re on the right side of the rules and consider what would
happen to their own reputations if they’re found to promote
products illegally.
Lucy Castledine, Director of Consumer Investments at the
FCA, said:
“Any marketing for financial products must be fair, clear and not
misleading so consumers can invest, save or borrow with
confidence.
“Promotions aren’t just about the likes, they’re about the law.
We will take action against those touting financial products
illegally.”
Social media will not always be the best place to promote complex
products. Firms need to consider whether a platform that offers
limited characters or space is the right place to do so. Scrutiny
of financial promotions has been ramped up and last year we
removed over 10,000 misleading adverts, up from around 8,500 in
2022.
Notes to editors:
-
Finalised Guidance and
Feedback Statement.
- In 2023, we consulted on updated
guidance for financial promotions on social media.
- Following FCA engagement, several Big Tech companies made
changes to their advertising policies to only allow financial
promotions that have been approved by FCA-authorised firms.
- The FCA continues to work with the Advertising Standards
Authority to help educate consumers and influencers about the
risks involved in promoting financial products. This work has
included an infographic and events to build up awareness of the
harm that can take place and help influencers make an informed
choice when they are approached to promote a financial product or
service.
- The guidance follows the introduction of stronger rules on
advertising high-risk investments, including crypto, and our
ongoing InvestSmart campaign to
encourage people to make better informed investment decisions.
