The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) required authorised firms to amend or remove 8,582 promotions during 2022.
That is 14 times more than 2021, a report published today (3 February) shows. In 2021, the regulator required authorised firms to amend or remove 573 promotions.
The FCA also published over 1,800 alerts to help prevent consumers from losing their money to scams. This is a 34% increase from 2021 when the regulator published 1,410 alerts.
FCA executive director, markets Sarah Pritchard 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.”
Social media remains a major focus for the regulator’s work in combatting misleading promotions.
The FCA said it has worked closely with several Big Tech companies to change their advertising policies to only allow financial promotions that have been approved by FCA-authorised firms.
Yet, the regulator stressed that more needs to be done by tech companies to protect consumers.
‘Fin-fluencers’ have also been a growing concern for the FCA. The regulator said that unauthorised individuals should not advise people on the merits of certain investments.
This is because their advice will likely be subject to FCA’s regulations and it could lead to action being taken against them.
But the FCA is concerned that the cost-of-living crisis could lead household experiencing difficulties to fall for scams.
Pritchard added: “While households continue to be affected by the rising cost of living, the FCA is concerned that people struggling with their finances may be more susceptible to scammers or adverts showing high risk, unregulated products.
“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.”
Pritchard also thinks that the introduction of the Consumer Duty in July will help the fight against misleading financial promotions.
She added: “Under the Duty, firms will need to demonstrate that they are providing consumers with information, which helps them to make effective and informed decisions about financial products and services.
“The regulator continues to use its ScamSmart campaign to provide people with information on how to avoid investment and pension scams.”
