During the quarter the FCA reviewed 301 financial promotions, 39% of which had been referred by consumers and 20% by other UK regulators.

About 15% of the promotions reviewed were referred to the service through the FCA’s own proactive monitoring.

Over a quarter (29%) of the financial promotions reviewed were about retail investments.

Retail investments and retail lending were the sectors with the highest amend/withdraw outcomes, totalling 70% of the FCA’s interventions with authorised firms.

Over the quarter the regulator received 6,387 reports about potential unauthorised businesses. The regulator issued 400 alerts on unauthorised firms and individuals, 11% of which were clone scams.

In April the FCA created an infographic to educate financial influencers about their obligations when seeking to promote financial services and products. The regulator said its infographic was viewed by 45,000 people, with 1,300 engaging with it.

Last month the regulator also outlined new guidance proposals aimed at combatting illegal and non-compliant social media ads and promotions and the potential damage from some ‘finfluencers.’

It said it has acted after seeing a growing number of rule-breaking social media ads.

The regulator said the new guidance was being introduced to ensure firms stay on the right side of the rules when advertising financial services and products.

The proposals will modernise the information firms should use when promoting financial products or services online.

The new social media guidance can be found at https://www.fca.org.uk/publication/guidance-consultation/gc23-2.pdf and will be consulted on over the summer.