The FCA has headed up a cohort of 17 regulators worldwide who took part in a week of action against illegal finfluencers putting consumers’ money at risk.
The exercise included enforcement activity, consumer awareness campaigns, and educational programmes for finfluencers who want to act responsibly.
Activity in the UK saw the FCA:
- Secure a guilty plea from Geordie Shore’s Aaron Chalmers for illegal promotions on social media. Criminal proceedings have been commenced against a further 2 individuals for similar offences.
- Send four targeted warning letters to individuals suspected of engaging in unauthorised financial promotions.
- Issue 34 warning alerts against unauthorised firms or individuals, and updated an additional 14 warnings.
- Make 120 account takedown requests to social media platforms hosting illegal finfluencer content. Within these accounts, the FCA identified 1,267 illegal financial adverts, which reached a minimum of 2,338,372 UK accounts. 66% of these adverts were from firms or individuals already on the FCA’s Warning List.
The regulator says social media platforms are not doing enough to uphold their own policies to block illegal content, and is calling on them to play a more proactive role in stopping illegal financial promotions at source.
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.”
