Several big tech companies have banned unregulated individuals from sharing financial ads on their platforms following a crackdown by the FCA.

Google, Bing, Meta, X (formerly Twitter) and TikTok have altered their advertising policies to ensure only people and firms that are FCA-authorised can promote financial products. The regulator said the changes were a result of its ‘close engagement’ with the companies.

Citywire New Model Adviser previously reported that Meta – the parent company of Facebook and Instagram – was contacting advice firms that advertised on social media to verify their FCA authorisation.

‘The FCA is taking a leading role in influencing technology companies to implement effective controls to stop scams, or otherwise illegal promotions, from appearing on their platforms,’ the regulator said yesterday.

‘We regularly and proactively engage[d] with them on issues that we know are affecting customers and retail investors.

‘Following this engagement, many of the largest search engines and social media platforms have implemented new financial services verification policies to ensure they only allow financial promotions that are made by, or with the approval of, authorised persons.’

As well as working with search engines to clamp down on ‘illegal promotions’, the FCA is also taking a tougher stance on social media financial influencers, or ‘finfluencers’, as it outlined in a paper published this week.

It told NMA that where an influencer discusses a product in order to attract more likes and followers in order to get more ad revenue or negotiate future revenue, this is likely to fall under the FCA’s rules for financial promotions.

The regulator said in its paper yesterday ‘influencers that promote a financial product without the right approval from an FCA-authorised person could be committing a criminal offence’.

It added that adverts on social media ‘must be fair, clear and not misleading, meaning they must have balance and carry the right risk warnings so people can make well-informed financial decisions’.

Financial planner Amyr Rocha Lima, director of London-based advice firm Strategic Wealth Partners, last week appeared on BBC Radio 4’s Your and Yours programme to warn of the dangers of ‘get-rich-quick’ finfluencers.

Despite the FCA succeeding in getting big tech firms to change their advertising policies, a rising amount of content on social media platforms appears to be breaching financial promotions rules.

In a consultation paper on the rules published last year, the FCA said that 69% of ads communicated or approved by authorised firms that were withdrawn by the regulator had included website or social media promotions.

Last month, Fundsmith posted a note on its website that warned about a bogus advert on Facebook which masqueraded as Terry Smith and encouraged users to join a WhatsApp group.

It is testament to the fact that announcements of new policies on financial adverts is one thing, while policing them is another.