The FCA has launched a review into the rules surrounding both investment-based and loan-based crowdfunding.

Incompliant P2P financial promotions have been highlighted as one of the regulator’s concerns as it outlined a review this morning.

The market has grown rapidly since the FCA introduced rules for the regulation of crowdfunding platforms in March 2014 and officials said, as planned, the body would examine concerns that have arisen from its development.

In 2015 an estimated £2.7 billion was invested on regulated crowdfunding platforms, up from £500 million in 2013, with more than 100 platforms either operating in the market or seeking authorisation.

An FCA report, calling for input from professionals and published this morning, stated: “We have some potential concerns about how firms are presenting information to investors.

“It is, for example, quite difficult to find clear information on default rates on platform websites or to understand how the likelihood of default differs depending on when a loan was originated (ie default rates by vintage). Such disclosures could make trends in underwriting standards more transparent to investors.”

The document stated: “We are concerned that we continue to see P2P financial promotions which are not compliant with our financial promotion rules across all types of media (for example, unbalanced presentation of risks and misleading comparisons with savings accounts and banking).

“At the same time, we are aware that the 2015 Nesta report indicated that 21% of P2P platforms surveyed think that our approach to online and social media promotion is ‘excessive and too strict’ for their platforms’ activities.

“We are therefore keen to receive information which will help us gauge whether our current financial promotion rules for P2P promotions are sufficient, and whether firms have a good enough understanding of our rules. We would also like to understand better what the particular issues may be for platforms regarding our approach to online and social media promotions.”

Christopher Woolard, director of strategy and competition at the FCA said: “The crowdfunding market is an innovative and growing sector and one which we see as part of promoting effective competition.

“We introduced rules in 2014 to ensure consumers were protected without preventing the market from enhancing competition through expansion and innovation.

“Since then the market has grown rapidly and we want to explore concerns that have been expressed about developments in some aspects of the market. We believe now is the right time to consider whether our requirements remain appropriate and that we have the right rules to support the development of this dynamic market by ensuring consumers are adequately protected.”

The FCA also signalled its intention to consult on applying the usual mortgage lending standards to Peer-to-Peer (P2P) platforms in order to give consumers the full benefit of these protections.

The FCA is asking for responses to the review by 8 September.