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Viral finance TikToks without risk warnings doubles

ended 05. June 2026

The share of viral finance TikToks with no risk warning doubled from 30% to 60% in six months, and not one video scored top marks for accuracy this year, research by Daytrading.com has found. Daytrading graded the most-watched investing TikToks in September 2025, then again in April 2026. It found the money advice young people see is getting less reliable, not more.

Given that Gen Z now treats TikTok as a main source of money tips, and the FCA and ESMA both issued fresh warnings about it this year, a few Qs for you below.

  • Is TikTok now officially the Wild West of finance?
  • As regulated advisers, how do you feel about the fact that people with zero regs and the intellectual depth of a pickled onion get gazillions of shares and likes?
  • Is the FCA doing enough to prevent people being exposed to poor advice online? 
  • Or more to the point, is it possible for it to do anything where people are unregulated?

3 responses from the Newspage community

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Editor
Anita Wright
Chartered Financial Planner at Ribble Wealth Management
Wild West is about right, though even the Wild West had the odd sheriff. The bigger worry is what the trend shows. Fewer risk warnings and worse accuracy tells you these videos aren't getting better, they're getting bolder. That usually happens late in a cycle, when easy money has made everyone feel clever and nobody wants to hear the word risk. How do I feel about it? Less angry than you might think. The loud and the confident have always drawn a crowd. The trouble is the audience. A generation learning about money from people with no stake in whether they're right, and no rules if they're wrong. The FCA can chase the regulated and shout at the rest, but you can't regulate a stranger on the internet in another time zone. So the real defence isn't a watchdog, it's a habit of mind. Ask who's paying, ask what they're selling, and remember that anything promising quick and certain returns is usually neither.
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Editor
Nouran Moustafa
Practice Principal & IFA at Roxton Wealth
TikTok has become the Wild West of finance because the loudest voices are not always the most qualified; they are just the best at packaging confidence into 30 seconds.

As regulated advisers, we spend our lives evidencing suitability, explaining risk and being accountable for what we recommend. Then someone with no qualifications can make a viral video telling young people where to put their money with no context, no risk warning and no consequences. That is not innovation; it is dangerous.

The FCA can warn, fine and police regulated promotions, but the harder problem is unregulated influence moving faster than regulation can react. By the time a bad trend is spotted, shared and investigated, the damage may already be done.

The solution cannot just be enforcement. We need proper financial education, stronger platform responsibility and a culture where young people learn to ask: who is saying this, how are they paid, and what happens if they are wrong?
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Colette Mason
AI Ethics Consultant at Clever Clogs AI
Every finance advert on radio and TV comes loaded with dull but important small print because a regulated adviser has to get it right and act in the client's interest. It is an outdated method but it shows the importance of the task. The investor's stability and quality of life depends on the outcome.

IFAs are hamstrung by regulations, forced to create dull but worthy content, while the Wild West rides on wherever it wants with scam phone calls and TikTok flimflam.

The FCA can impose fines for a misplaced disclaimer but it cannot meaningfully touch an unregulated creator telling Gen Z to leverage into meme coins or not bother with a pension and live for now.

A scammer has no rules, no compliance costs, no professional indemnity, and an IFA can't fight a fair fight despite being in a better position to advise responsibly.

The heavy regulatory burden keeps landing on the ethical IFAs, and the "entertaining" influencers causing the damage don't even know the FCA rules exist.