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Britain’s financial services regulator announced guidelines for financial services corporations and social media influencers making memes about cryptocurrencies and other investments in a bid to tackle an increase in scams.
The Financial Conduct Authority said in a press release Tuesday that any marketing for financial products — including those expressed in memes — needs to be fair, clear, and never misleading.
The watchdog said that financial social media influencers, or “finfluencers,” should have the approval of an FCA-appointed representative before publishing advertisements and memes about financial services and products, the FCA said.
“Promotions aren’t just in regards to the likes, they’re in regards to the law. We are going to take motion against those touting financial products illegally,” Lucy Castledine, director of consumer investments on the FCA, said in a press release Tuesday.
“Social media is not going to all the time be the most effective place to advertise complex products. Firms need to contemplate whether a platform that gives limited characters or space is the best place to accomplish that.”
The FCA said that, in 2022, it took down over 10,000 misleading adverts about financial services.
Promotional crypto memes
The regulator said using memes in promotions is especially prevalent within the cryptocurrency industry.
Crypto memes are especially prevalent on Telegram, a preferred platform with digital currency enthusiasts. Reddit is one other place where crypto is widely discussed.
The FCA said it has seen promotions using memes to hype up certain investments on chatrooms comparable to Reddit and Telegram.
Users of chatrooms and forums needs to be aware that financial promotions on those channels will still be subject to its rules, the FCA said.
The move is a component of the FCA’s bid to clamp down on the rise in financial scams. Scams rose sharply throughout the Covid-19 pandemic as more consumers turned to online platforms for his or her banking and investment needs.
The FCA has turn into especially aggressive on crypto promoting. In October 2023, the FCA began to require that firms wishing to advertise consumer crypto investing within the U.K. be authorized or registered with the regulator, or have their marketing approved by a licensed firm.
