The Financial Conduct Authority has coordinated a global enforcement effort targeting illegal financial promotions by so-called finfluencers. The action involved 17 regulators and began earlier this week.

It is a coordinated operation spanning five continents and covering major retail trading hubs including Singapore, Hong Kong, the United Arab Emirates, Australia, and New Zealand. New Zealand’s Financial Markets Authority said it contacted 14 finfluencers active on social media platforms as part of the operation.

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As part of the operation, the regulator monitored online activity and made 120 requests to social media platforms to remove accounts linked to illegal financial promotions. Within those accounts, it identified 1,267 unlawful adverts. These adverts reached at least 2,338,372 UK users. According to the FCA, 66% of the adverts originated from firms or individuals already listed on its Warning List.

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The initiative, described as a “week of action,” combined enforcement measures, public awareness campaigns, and education programmes aimed at individuals promoting financial products online. The FCA said the goal was to reduce consumer harm linked to unauthorised promotions on social media.

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In the UK, the regulator reported several enforcement outcomes during the same period. It secured a guilty plea from Aaron Chalmers for illegal financial promotions on social media. Criminal proceedings were also launched against two additional individuals for similar offences.

It also issued four targeted warning letters to individuals suspected of making unauthorised promotions. In parallel, it published 34 new warning alerts against firms or individuals and updated 14 existing alerts.

The regulator also said social media platforms need to take stronger action. It stated that platforms are not sufficiently enforcing their own policies to block illegal financial content at the source.

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Steve Smart, Executive Director of Enforcement and Market Oversight at the FCA, said: “This collective push with international partners is vital… to protect millions of consumers.”

He added that progress against financial crime depends on “every part of the system” playing its role, “including social media firms.”

The latest operation follows a previous international enforcement week conducted in June 2025 with eight regulators.

Regulators Differ on Finfluencer Oversight Approaches

Enforcement approaches to finfluencers also vary across jurisdictions. Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission was involved in the city’s first custodial sentence for a finfluencer, after Chau Pak Yin received a six-week prison term for running a paid Telegram group offering unlicensed investment advice.

The Securities and Commodities Authority in the UAE requires licences for individuals producing financial content online, while the Financial Conduct Authority continues to rely on enforcement under existing financial promotion rules.

New Zealand’s Financial Markets Authority uses an enforcement-led approach without a licensing regime and has proposed tighter CFD rules, including leverage caps of up to 30:1 for retail clients.