The French financial regulator Autorité des Marchés Financiers (AMF) mystery-shopped 14 mobile investment providers between November 2024 and January 2025. At most of them, users could subscribe to financial instruments in fewer than ten clicks.
The AMF said smooth, rapid mobile journeys improve user experience but may also "reduce the thinking time before investing."
Investing in Fewer Than 10 Clicks
The regulator reviewed customer journeys from an investor's perspective, focusing on the information clients received before investing and the marketing levers providers used to encourage it.
Mobile journeys were generally smooth, and accounts often opened quickly, aided by digital tools built to optimise onboarding and execution. The report does not name the 14 firms and does not claim all of them used the same design techniques.
Commercial practices varied. Some firms took what the AMF described as an understated approach. Others actively solicited clients through notifications, promotions, video-game-like mechanisms or community functions that the regulator said can influence investment decisions.
The AMF tested real mobile journeys and found fast execution, engagement tools and investment prompts sitting inside the same customer experience.
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Fast UX, Slower Regulation?
The regulator also found weaknesses in the information layer around those journeys. Most firms provided mandatory regulatory documentation, but some supplied it in a foreign language. Information on total costs or the nature of financial instruments was insufficient or ambiguous at some institutions.
Educational support was uneven. Some apps offered tutorials, webinars and FAQs; others gave fragmented information that, the AMF said, limited investors' understanding of risk.
Scrutiny of engagement-driven app design is not confined to France. In the US, Massachusetts securities regulators have described confetti animations and reward notifications on trading apps as design choices closer to gambling products than investment tools.
Retail investment apps have made onboarding and execution highly efficient. The AMF's findings show the disclosure and education practices around them hasn't kept pace. The findings fit the regulator's wider focus on retail investor protection.
The annual report names this the AMF's top priority, particularly for young people who are increasingly active in markets. It also cites a June 2025 analysis showing active retail investors getting younger, with fractional-share trading on the rise.
The 14 providers reviewed were not named, and the AMF has not said whether any will face follow-up action.
