FCA sets out final guidance as part of social media crackdown
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) wants social media promotions to feature risk warnings as part of its finalised marketing guidance.
The FCA said it would be cracking down on financial promotions and ‘finfluencers’ with a consultation that started back in September 2023.
The regulator wants adverts across social media channels to 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’.
While the main thrust of these guidelines is to tackle any wrongdoing by finfluencers (social media influencers that promote certain finance and investment products), the rules affect any regulated finance product promoted on social media.
This includes motor finance.
The FCA’s example of a compliant promotion
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.”
The FCA’s advice is that social media will not always be the best place to promote complex products.
It said 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 the FCA removed over 10,000 misleading adverts, up from around 8,500 in 2022.
