Financial and advertising regulators collaborate on ‘fin-fluencer’ education campaign

The UK’s FCA and ASA are working with influencer’s agents to educate their clients on harmful or illegal financial promotions.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) have teamed up with reality TV star and influencer Sharon Gaffka to educate public figures on harmful or illegal financial promotions.

The campaign by the two regulators targets influencers and their agents to provide clear and concise information on what could be deemed an illegal financial promotion.

“This campaign with the FCA and ASA will hopefully make sure other influencers stay on the right side of the law and prevent them from unknowingly introducing their followers to scams or high-risk investments”, Gaffka  said.

The FCA has invited the Influencer Marketing Trade Body and several other influencer agents to discuss how to differentiate legal from illicit advertisements.

The FCA and ASA are increasingly concerned about harmful social media promotions of risky financial products, such as crypto.

“We’ve seen more cases of influencers touting products that they shouldn’t be. They are often doing this without knowledge of the rules and without an understanding of the harm they could cause their followers”, said FCA markets executive director Sarah Pritchard.

“We want to work with influencers so they keep on the right side of the law, as this will also help protect people from being shown scams or investments that are too risky.”

Over the last few years, organizations have been stamping down on advertisements involving cryptocurrencies.

In 2021, TikTok banned crypto ads. A year later, the UK launched a campaign against crypto advertisements, targeting “misleading” ads appearing to the general public without meeting a set of robust criteria.

This year, a group of YouTube personalities faced a class-action lawsuit in the US after being accused of promoting and popularizing FTX, convincing retail consumers to invest in the now-bankrupt venture.

Additionally, French lawmakers made the decision to ban influencers from promoting digital currencies online, imposing a fine of $32,000 with up to two years imprisonment if the proposed measures are violated.

ASA director of complaints and investigations Miles Lockwood said the watchdog plans to set up a “dedicated webpage to highlight those who are publishing misleading content”.

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Written by Isabella Aslam

Reporter

Isabella is an experienced writer in B2B and B2C journalism. Alongside crypto, Isabella writes and discusses the topics of relationships and psychology. Isabella holds a first-class degree in music journalism and often interviews electronic artists and DJs.

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