A finfluencer is a social media creator who talks about money: investing, trading, crypto, pensions, credit cards, loans or budgeting. In the UK, when a finfluencer’s content encourages people to take up a financial product, it can be a regulated financial promotion, and promoting it unlawfully is a criminal offence.
How finfluencer marketing works
Finfluencer content ranges from genuine education to straightforward selling. Some creators explain how ISAs or pensions work. Others share their own trades, post referral links to investment apps, run paid partnerships with lenders, buy-now-pay-later providers or crypto exchanges, or earn commission through affiliate links in their bio.
The legal mechanism sits in the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000. A person must not, in the course of business, communicate an invitation or inducement to engage in investment activity unless they are authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority or the content has been approved by an authorised person with permission to approve it. Being paid, receiving commission or getting other benefits for the content is a strong sign the creator is acting in the course of business.
The FCA’s guidance on financial promotions on social media, FG24/1, published in 2024, sets out how this applies to finfluencers and to the firms that work with them. At the time of writing (October 2026) it remains the main reference, though the FCA updates its approach and you should check the current version. The FCA has also brought criminal prosecutions against finfluencers, which shows it treats this as more than a technicality.
Separately, ASA rules on labelling still apply. A paid finfluencer post needs to be clearly identifiable as advertising, but a #ad label does nothing to make an unlawful financial promotion lawful.
Why it matters
For UK fintechs, lenders, investment platforms, crypto firms and financial advisers, creator marketing can look like a cheap way to reach younger audiences. The risk is shared. An authorised firm remains responsible for the promotions it commissions and approves, and the creator can be personally liable. High-risk investments and cryptoassets carry extra rules on risk warnings and how people can be encouraged to invest.
For a smaller firm, one non-compliant video can mean regulatory attention, takedowns and lasting damage to trust that far outweighs whatever the campaign brought in.
Common mistakes
- Believing a “not financial advice” disclaimer protects the creator or the firm. It does not change whether the content is a financial promotion.
- Assuming that ASA-compliant labelling means FCA compliance.
- Letting creators improvise about returns, safety or “easy money” without a reviewed script.
- No sign-off by someone with the right permission before the content goes live.
- No records of what was approved, posted and when, and no way to have content taken down.
How to act on it
If you are a financial firm, start by asking whether the planned content is a financial promotion at all; for anything that may be, involve your compliance team or an adviser before briefing a creator. Agree the script, risk wording and labelling in advance, get approval from someone with the right permission, keep records, and include monitoring and takedown rights in the contract.
Choose creators whose audience and tone fit a regulated product, and brief them on what they must not say. If you are building a marketing plan for a regulated financial product, I work on that through digital marketing for fintech, always alongside your compliance function rather than instead of it. The wider rules for paid creator content are covered under influencer marketing.