The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has joined regulators around the world in a coordinated “week of action” targeting illegal finfluencers, as authorities ramp up efforts to prevent misleading financial promotions putting consumers’ money at risk.
Leading the UK’s contribution to the initiative, the regulator combined enforcement action with consumer awareness campaigns and educational programmes aimed at influencers seeking to operate within the rules.
As part of its enforcement drive, the FCA secured a guilty plea from Aaron Chalmers over unlawful financial promotions on social media. Criminal proceedings have also been launched against two further individuals for similar offences.
The watchdog also issued four targeted warning letters to individuals suspected of unauthorised promotions, alongside 34 new warning alerts against firms or individuals, and updates to a further 14 existing alerts.
In a broader sweep of online activity, the FCA made 120 requests to social media platforms to remove accounts hosting illegal finfluencer content.
Across these accounts, the regulator identified 1,267 unlawful financial adverts, which collectively reached at least 2.3 million UK users. Notably, 66% of these adverts originated from firms or individuals already listed on the FCA’s Warning List.
The regulator is now calling on social media platforms to take greater responsibility in tackling the issue, arguing that they are failing to adequately enforce their own policies to prevent illegal financial promotions from appearing in the first place.
The coordinated action underscores growing regulatory concern around the rise of finfluencers and the role platforms play in amplifying potentially harmful financial advice to mass audiences.
Steve Smart, executive director of enforcement and market oversight at the FCA, said: “This collective push with international partners is vital in helping to protect millions of consumers from harm,
“We will only make real progress in the fight against financial crime if every part of the system plays its role – including social media firms.”
The UAE’s Capital Market Authority also took part in the week of action, launching an initiative to grant finfluencer authorisation to graduates of its Youth Financial Advisors Programme.
During the campaign, these newly authorised influencers are working alongside the CMA to promote consistent messaging around responsible investing and highlight the risks of misleading content.
It also forms part of a broader crackdown by the Financial Conduct Authority on misleading online content. The regulator identified more than 1,000 illegal financial promotions across Meta Platforms’ platforms and has sentenced and fined seven influencers for promoting an unauthorised foreign exchange trading scheme.
The FCA also rolled out a campaign to raise awareness of scam adverts and encourage consumers to protect themselves from financial crime by verifying firms’ authorisation using its Firm Checker tool before investing.