Over 10,000 misleading financial scams and promotions featured on social media platforms Instagram, Facebook, YouTube and TikTok have been targeted by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).
The financial watchdog asked firms to amend or remove 8,582 promotions last year, 15 times more than in 2021 (573). In addition, the FCA has also published over 1,800 alerts to help prevent consumers from losing their money to scams.
Social media remains a “major focus” for the regulator’s work in tackling misleading promotions. The FCA has reportedly 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.
An improvement in the quality of the digital tools the authority uses has enabled it to work through a much larger number of cases compared with 2021.
‘Fin-fluencers’ – unauthorised influencers advising social media users on investments – have also been a growing concern for the regulator.
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“Our expectations remain the same. Financial promotions must be fair, clear and not misleading,” FCA Markets executive director, Sarah Pritchard, said. “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.”
The news comes two months after the FCA proposed measures to clamp down on misleading financial marketing in the UK.
