Latest data from the FCA published today has revealed that nearly 20,000 financial promotions were pulled or amended in 2024 following intervention from the regulator - almost double the level seen in 2023.

The number of suspect financial promotions was 97.5% up on the previous year and underlines a strong rise in misleading or illegal financial promotions over the past 12 months.

The regulator said there were particular concerns about promotions involving cryptoassets, debt solutions and claims management companies (CMCs).

Some 9,197 CMC promotions were withdrawn in 2024 with many of the promotions related to housing disrepair and motor finance claims targeted at vulnerable consumers.

The FCA says it is continuing to urge social media platforms to do more to “proactively identify and prevent illegal financial promotions.”

The FCA is working with social media platforms to disrupt suspicious activity and says that while there has been some progress, the responsiveness to its  requests for removing unlawful content varies and some platforms, like X and Discord, have refused to remove unlawful content except in exceptional circumstances. It wants platforms to take stronger action to proactively identify and stop illegal promotions being pushed on consumers.

Last year, the FCA launched targeted legal action against ‘finfluencers’, resulting in 20 people being interviewed under caution.

The FCA said it had also seen more young people falling victim to scams and finfluencers. Nearly two-thirds (62%) of 18 to 29-year-olds follow social media influencers, with 74% of them saying they trusted their advice, the FCA found. The FCA said its research showed that 9 in 10 young followers said they had been encouraged to change their financial behaviour.

The FCA has strengthened rules around financial promotions, including the introduction of the Section 21 Gateway, which now requires firms to obtain FCA permission before approving promotions for unauthorised persons.

The FCA also issued 2240 warnings about unauthorised or potentially scam firms in 2024. 

Lucy Castledine, drector of consumer investments at the FCA, said: “Over the past year, we have seen a growing number of misleading and illegal financial promotions. We have stepped up our efforts in response to make sure that financial promotions are clear, fair, and accurate.

"We expect firms to take the necessary steps to meet standards and will continue to work with other bodies, including social media platforms, to prevent illegal promotions being pushed to consumers."

• Consumers can visit the FCA to report scams.