The Financial Conduct Authority told firms to amend or remove 8,582 financial promotions during 2022 – 14 times the level of 2021.
The data suggests the FCA is currently intervening in 165 financial ads and promotions a week.
The FCA said during 2022 it also published over 1,800 alerts to help prevent consumers from losing their money to scams.
In a report published today, the watchdog said that social media remains a major focus and it will step up action against misleading social media ‘fin-fluencers’ this year.
The FCA is working with large tech companies, such as search engines and social media providers, to change their advertising policies to only allow financial promotions that have been approved by FCA-authorised firms. However it says more needs to be done by tech companies to protect consumers.
The FCA has beefed up the digital tools it uses to find problem firms and misleading adverts. It says this has helped it work through a much larger number of cases in 2022 compared with 2021.
‘Fin-fluencers’ – social media influencers promoting financial products – have also been a “growing concern” for the regulator.
It says unauthorised individuals should not advise people on the merits of certain investments, as this will likely be subject to FCA regulations and “could lead to action being taken against them.” The FCA said it had already acted against several social media influencers over the past year.
In one case, the FCA found a director of a regulated firm using their personal profile to promote the advice of unauthorised traders and other financial products. The FCA blocked them from using their personal social media to promote financial services and imposed a requirement on the firm to halt any financial services promotions.
Sarah Pritchard, FCA executive director, markets said: “Our expectations remain the same. Financial promotions must be fair, clear and not misleading. What has changed is the FCA’s approach. By drawing on better technology, we’re finding poor quality or misleading ads quicker. And where we find them, we’re stepping in to make firms improve them or remove them entirely.
“This year, we will continue to put the pressure on people using social media to illegally promote investments, which put people’s hard-earned money at risk.”
The FCA said it was concerned that people struggling with the cost of living crisis may be more susceptible to scammers or high risk adverts.
The FCA is currently consulting on introducing tougher checks for firms which want to approve financial promotions. The measures will make sure the FCA is able to quickly put a stop to harmful financial promotions by unauthorised firms and individuals.
It will also be introducing the Consumer Duty in July. Under the Duty, firms will need to demonstrate that they are providing consumers with information, which help them to make effective and informed decisions about financial products and services.
