FCA publishes data on interventions to financial promotions – with ‘finfluencers’ a target
25 Feb 2025
3 min read
The FCA has published new data on interventions in response to financial promotions from both authorised firms and unauthorised firms and from individuals. The headline figure is that authorised firms had 19,766 promotions amended or withdrawn, which represents an increase of 97.5% compared to 10,008 in 2023.
The FCA has also identified some trends; there has been a marked increase in activity with Claims Management Companies and firms offering debt advice and debt solutions.
More widely, interventions include:
- Using various tools and sources to proactively identify websites and social media that promote financial services without appropriate authorisation; and
- Interviewing 20 ‘finfluencers’ (financial influencers who promote on social media) under caution and issuing 38 alerts against finfluencer social media accounts that may contain unlawful promotions.
Cryptoasset financial promotions regime
The FCA has made it clear that they expect firms to engage directly with them to raise standards across the sector and should avoid industry comparisons to benchmark against. Firms’ compliance with regulatory requirements will also be considered and reviewed when it comes to any application for them to be authorised under the future financial services’ regulatory regime for cryptoassets. Firms should also pay particular attention to the FCA’s information on cryptoasset financial promotions and fiat-to-crypto on/off ramp services.
Section 21 Approvals
Since 7 February 2024, authorised firms have needed the FCA’s permission to approve promotions for unregulated persons. Firms must also now notify the FCA when approving, amending or withdrawing unregulated entity promotions where they relate to high-risk products subject to a retail mass-marketing ban or qualifying cryptoassets.
Firms using section 21 should be aware that approvers:
- Should get information from their clients about complaints regarding approved financial promotions; and
- should attribute a proportion of their revenue to section 21 approvals for reporting purposes where they do not charge separately for section 21 approvals, because these are included within a wider service.
The FCA has also reiterated that approver firms must take reasonable steps to monitor the continuing compliance of financial promotions that they have approved.
In relation to claims management activity for motor finance claims or later life lending, the FCA has proactively reviewed financial promotions. This worked resulted in 8% of the 19,766 promotions reviewed being withdrawn or amended.
Buy now, pay later
The FCA continues to assess firms against the relevant Dear CEO Letter and applicable consumer credit rules and guidance.
Buy now, pay later firms should acquaint themselves with the Dear CEO letter, and with relevant rules and guidance, particularly in the context of the Consumer Duty and its evolving expectations.
Looking ahead
The FCA remains concerned about the levels of compliance with the financial promotions rules and states that it will continue to focus on the area to reduce consumer harm. It is likely that this year will see further interventions to try and ensure compliance to protect consumers from harm. This might be of particular note to finfluencers and to firms promoting cryptocurrencies.
Burges Salmon has significant experience advising on the regulations around financial promotions. Please see our long-read on the regulations here. If you would like to discuss the issues raised by this article, please contact Martin Cook or Matt Jones.
This article was written by Matthew Pegler
Good quality marketing information helps ensure consumers get good outcomes. Unclear and misleading marketing is a big concern because financial products are complex and often long-term. Our data shows we are increasing our interventions and we continue to focus on identifying authorised and unauthorised firms and/or individuals causing consumer harm.