Copy article

FCA crackdown on illegal finfluencers: "It's about time the FCA stepped in and started clearing up this mess"

ended 06. June 2025

Regulators across the globe, led by the FCA, have joined forces to protect social media users from illegal financial promotions by rogue finfluencers, the FCA has announced. Nine regulators, from Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, Italy, United Arab Emirates and United Kingdom took part in the week of action, which began on 2 June 2025.

In the UK, the FCA has:

  • made 3 arrests with the support of the City of London Police (the National Lead Force for fraud)
  • authorised criminal proceedings against 3 individuals
  • invited 4 finfluencers for interview
  • sent 7 cease and desist letters
  • issued 50 warning alerts

The warning alerts will result in over 650 take down requests on social media platforms and more than 50 websites operated by unauthorised finfluencers.

Steve Smart, joint executive director of enforcement and market oversight at the FCA, said: 'Our message to finfluencers is loud and clear. They must act responsibly and only promote financial products where they are authorised to do so – or face the consequences.'

Any views, send them across ASAP as this story is BREAKING.

9 responses from the Newspage community

Copy all

Star Quote
Copy

Editor
Harry Goodliffe
Director at HTG Mortgages
It's about time the FCA stepped in and started clearing up this mess. There are far too many so-called ‘finfluencers’ online dishing out dodgy advice with no clue what they’re talking about. I’ve heard stories of people losing out big time because they trusted someone on TikTok over proper, regulated advice. This is a solid start from the FCA, but they need to move quicker. Social media platforms move at lightning speed, and bad info spreads fast.
Copy

Editor
Michelle Lawson
Director at Lawson Financial
This is long overdue and welcomed. Hopefully this is just the start and not simply a warning shot that will then get forgotten about. People are increasingly turning to social media channels for advice but what they see, hear or read must be accurate, correct and appropriate rather than for social media presence and profiling.
Copy

Editor
Ben Perks
Managing Director at Orchard Financial Advisers
Professionals will be over the moon with this news. Our hands have been bound by regulation and anything we say online is heavily scrutinised and rightly so. By making people accountable for what they put out, it protects vulnerable borrowers. Until now, influencers have been able to spread misinformation and lies without consequence. Hopefully this crack down will make online financial advice safer and I hope that all the ‘finfluencers’ that have caused financial harm are brought to justice.
Copy

Editor
Daniel Hobbs
CEO at New Leaf Distribution
The level of financial misinformation on social media platforms is astounding. The sooner the regulator acts to improve outcomes for the consumer, the better. Wild West is an understatement these days.
Copy

Editor
Tony Redondo
Founder at Cosmos Currency Exchange
The FCA's international crackdown on illegal finfluencers is a bold move to curb misleading financial promotions on social media, which can exploit vulnerable users. The scale of the operation, with over 650 takedown requests and 50+ website targets, highlights how widespread the problem has become. This protects users from misleading advice, though some worry it could limit legitimate financial education. It’ll be interesting to see how this evolves. It remains to be seen whether it deters rogue finfluencers or just pushes them to darker corners of the internet.
Copy

Editor
Scott Gallacher
Director at Rowley Turton
The rise of so-called 'finfluencers' promoting risky or even outright illegal financial products online is deeply worrying — especially when disguised as lifestyle advice. Financial promotions should never be a free-for-all. Regulation and authorisation exist for a reason: to protect consumers. This appears to be surprisingly decisive and swift action by the FCA — perhaps aided by coordinated pressure from other international regulators — and it’s to be applauded. The growing threat posed by unregulated finfluencers has needed a firm response for some time. Hopefully, this new-found decisiveness signals a shift in the FCA’s approach and leads to similarly decisive action in other areas of concern for both consumers and regulated firms.
Copy

Editor
Rob Peters
Principal at Simple Fast Mortgage
This is a welcome and necessary step from the FCA. Rogue finfluencers have been operating unchecked for too long, giving unregulated advice, hyping risky products, and confusing consumers and it’s high time regulators stepped in with teeth.

The crackdown is a positive signal and criminal proceedings send a strong message, but real success depends on how consistently it’s enforced going forward. Social media moves at lightning speed and regulation can’t afford to crawl behind it. If the FCA is serious, this needs to be the beginning of a sustained, visible campaign and not just a one-off show of strength.
Copy

Kundan Bhaduri
Entrepreneur, Investor and Landlord at The Kushman Group
The FCA’s long-overdue crackdown on rogue finfluencers is less a bold move and more a necessary clean-up of a regulatory vacuum it allowed to fester. Three arrests, 50 warnings, and 650 takedown requests barely scratch the surface of an online ecosystem where self-anointed experts (often unqualified, unregulated and occasionally anonymous) peddle high-risk investments and mortgage ‘hacks’ to millions. If I need authorisation to offer basic property finance insights, why are TikTok traders pushing crypto schemes without scrutiny? Consumers deserve protection, not entertainment dressed up as advice. Frankly, the real scandal isn’t that the FCA is acting now, it’s that they have sat on their hands while financial disinformation exploded across every platform with a “like” button. All this happens while the chavs on Labour's treasury benches look the other way, either because they don't understand regulation of financial advice or perhaps more sinisterly they are in it too.
Copy

John Woolfitt
Director at Atlantic Capital Markets
This is very welcome news. Remember: finfluencers are primarily looking for clicks or for you to join some online subscription group, and to get you on the hook it needs to be sensationalist content. This, more often than not, leads to focusing on stocks with ridiculously high risk. Equally a lot of these finfluencers will often tell you what they have done after the stock in question has moved (if i deed anything was actually done) creating a false impression that money has been made.
This content is largely posted on social media as well adding to the concerns as it can target unsuitable or vulnerable people who have little or no experience or wealth to be engaging in stock market activity, and just get sucked in with the flashy videos, usually when just scrolling through random posts. It is critical that any marketing or advice around trading and stock markets must be focused to the correct people and must also highlight the risks involved and must come from a qualifed source.