FCA guidance on financial promotions on social media: FG24/1 explained

What FG24/1 is and what it replaced

FG24/1 is the FCA's guidance on how its financial promotion rules apply on social media. Published on 26 March 2024, after a consultation that drew 110 responses (Annex 1), it replaced the FCA's 2015 guidance, FG15/4, which is now retired.

It creates no new rules. It “indicates how firms might approach complying with their existing regulatory obligations” (paragraph 1.12), and those are binding: section 21 of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000, the Consumer Duty and each sector's promotion rules, such as COBS 4 and COBS 22 for investments and CONC 3 for credit (paragraph 2.1 and paragraph 2.15).

This page covers your firm's own posts. For influencers, see finfluencer rules in the UK.

Which of your posts are financial promotions

A post is a financial promotion if, in the course of business, it invites or induces people to engage in investment activity (FSMA, section 21). The FCA's rules are “technology neutral” (paragraph 1.1), and on your own account the business test is rarely in doubt. What matters is what the post says and who can see it.

For an authorised firm, the usual risk is a lawful but non-compliant promotion, such as one with “an obscured risk warning that breaches our rules on prominence” (paragraph 2.7).

Each post must comply on its own

You can link to more detail, but “the initial promotion needs to remain compliant in and of itself” (paragraph 2.21). Some respondents to the consultation asked the FCA to drop this standalone test now that the Consumer Duty applies. It kept it, noting that “Consumers may also not click-through to find additional information in the way firms anticipate” (Annex 1).

For Stories and other formats viewed frame by frame, the FCA judges the promotion as a whole, taking a proportionate view of the number of frames and where important information, including about risk, appears (paragraph 2.22). How much detail balance needs depends on factors such as the audience and the decision they face (paragraph 2.23), and more is not always safer: “Excessive information may obscure the most significant information or confuse consumers” (paragraph 2.26).

Risks go in the post, not the caption

On posts with the benefits in the video or image and the risk warnings in the caption below, the FCA says: “Promotions like this lack balance and are likely to be unfair and potentially misleading” (paragraph 2.45). Where you can, show information that must be prominent without any click. If “see more” truncation is unavoidable, show as much as possible, and only if the post is still fair, clear and not misleading on its own (paragraphs 2.28 and 2.29). An accompanying image can carry it, unless users can turn images off (paragraph 2.30).

Prescribed warnings get less room. For high-risk investments, the FCA expects the warning “to be displayed throughout the promotion and not to be obscured or truncated by a design feature of the social media platform” (paragraph 1.5). For cryptoassets and other restricted mass market investments, the rules ban design features that reduce a warning's visibility (COBS 4.12A.38R), such as “requiring additional links to be clicked in order for the full text of the risk warning to be seen” (COBS 4.12A.39G).

A prescribed warning should be “prominent relative to other elements of a promotion, though not necessarily the same size font as the headline” (Annex 1). For investment promotions, risk text must still be at least the predominant font size (COBS 4.5.2R(5); COBS 4.5A.3R(2)(c) for MiFID business).

Stories, carousels, video and live streams

Table 1 of FG24/1 sets out, format by format, what the FCA would consider a prominent prescribed risk warning (paragraph 2.46). In the FCA's words:

The platforms named are examples: Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts are short-form video too. The same principles should also be considered for how other important information is shown (paragraph 2.41). Live streams and gaming streams are likely to be non-real time promotions (paragraph 3.14).

What you can shorten for character limits

“Social media will not always be an appropriate channel to communicate promotions” (paragraph 2.33). For complex products, FG24/1 suggests signposting a fuller channel, or image advertising. For debt solutions, it doubts that space-restricted media are suitable (paragraph 2.34).

Shorten a prescribed warning only to a version the rules provide, and only where the full one exceeds the platform's character limit: “Where our rules explicitly allow shortened risk warnings, firms should ensure the entire shortened clause is clearly visible and the full warning is included after click-through” (paragraph 2.44).

For restricted mass market investments, the “Take 2 mins to learn more” link need not use those words where they would break the limit, and can be left out where the medium cannot carry a link (COBS 4.12A.11R(3)(b)). Full wordings: CFD risk warning wording and crypto promotion rules.

FG24/1's own examples, figure by figure

Links, landing pages and group accounts

A link should be “clearly brought to the consumer's attention” and give enough information for an informed decision (paragraph 2.21). The page it opens must comply on its own (paragraph 2.20). For CFDs and restricted mass market investments, that includes the warning fixed at the top of the screen and on each linked page (COBS 22.5.8R; COBS 4.12A.36R).

Accounts shared across a global group carry a particular risk: “We've seen harm occur where UK consumers click a link in a financial promotion believing they are engaging with the promotion of a UK regulated person but are directed to communications (such as a website) of an unregulated overseas group entity” (paragraph 2.53). The FCA suggests having the UK authorised firm approve what a shared account posts, or running UK accounts that are “active and not to be ‘shell’ accounts” (paragraphs 2.55 and 2.56). A line saying a post is not for UK consumers can help, but “it is unlikely that this will be sufficient to comply if implemented in isolation” (paragraph 2.52).

Reposts, shares and old posts

If others repost your promotion, a breach in it stays yours: “Sharing or forwarding by a third party does not eliminate any original non-compliance” (paragraph 3.9). Sharing can also create a breach, as when a post meant for professional investors reaches retail customers (paragraph 3.10). And if you share a customer's post that invites or induces investment, “The firm is responsible for compliance if it shares the post, even though the firm did not generate the original content of the communication” (paragraph 3.11).

Old posts stay visible long after the day they go out. For investment promotions, the FCA's guidance is that “If a firm continues to communicate a financial promotion when the financial promotion no longer complies with the rules in this chapter, it will breach those rules” (COBS 4.10.8G). A promotion clearly relevant only at a particular date, such as a dated analyst's report, does not stop complying merely because time has passed (COBS 4.10.9G).

Before the cryptoasset regime began on 8 October 2023, the best-prepared firms had begun reviewing “any other articles or published material that are still publicly available” (FCA, 7 September 2023). Start with pinned posts, and look again whenever a rule or product changes, or a CFD loss percentage is recalculated (COBS 22.5.6R(4)).

Targeting, frequency and direct messages

The Consumer Duty requires you to tailor communications to, among other things, “the communication channel(s) used” (PRIN 2A.5.8R). FG24/1 applies that to how posts reach people:

• Professional-only content. A disclaimer will not confine it: “it is not sufficient simply to include a disclaimer to the effect that the promotion is ‘for professional investors only’” (paragraph 3.4).
• Frequency. The FCA does not regard repeatedly bombarding people with promotions as acting in good faith under PRIN 2A.2.1 (paragraph 3.5), and using platforms' targeting tools could leave consumers “inappropriately bombarded” (Annex 1).
• Follow-ups. “A promotion by a tweet (for example) is not a real-time promotion within the meaning set out in the FPO”, and a follow or a like is not “an established existing client relationship” for the cold-calling rules (paragraph 3.13).
• Direct messages. “If you are marketing using direct messaging via social media, the electronic mail marketing rules apply”, so you need consent or, for existing customers, the soft opt-in (ICO; FG24/1, paragraph 3.12).

Affiliates, influencers and ad labels

If an affiliate posts a promotion with your referral link, the FCA may treat you as causing it even if you did not create it: “The firm would be liable for the compliance of that financial promotion” (paragraph 3.19). The first poor practice in FG24/1's Table 2 is “Leaving it to affiliates to ensure promotions are communicated legally and in compliance with our rules” (Table 2, paragraph 3.22). See affiliate marketing compliance and finfluencer rules in the UK.

On labels, under COBS 4 a financial promotion addressed to a client must be “clearly identifiable as such” (COBS 4.3.1R). The ASA's CAP Code still reaches FCA-regulated promotions for “non-technical elements of communications”, such as offence and social responsibility (CAP Code, section 14), and FG24/1 reminds firms that paid or connected influencer content must be obviously identifiable as advertising (paragraph 4.7).

Sign-off and records

FG24/1 expects “an adequate system in place to sign off digital media communications”, with sign-off by “a person of appropriate competence and seniority within the organisation” (paragraph 3.15). Check each platform's own advertising policy too (paragraph 4.9).

Keep your own copy of what ran: “Firms should not rely on digital media channels to maintain records, as they will not have control over this. Social media platforms may refresh content from time to time, deleting older material” (paragraph 3.16). For investment promotions, keep the record for three years, five for MiFID business, six for life policies and pension schemes, and indefinitely for pension transfers, conversions and opt-outs (COBS 4.11.1R), and consider recording why you were satisfied it complies (COBS 4.11.2G). For a video, carousel or Story, that means every frame as it ran.

What has happened since March 2024

For the FCA's action against finfluencers, see finfluencer rules in the UK and FCA financial promotions enforcement.

A checklist for a social post before it goes out

Connor reads a social post from its link, or an image, carousel or video including its audio and spoken words, and works out which rules apply from your home regulator, your markets and your products. Each finding quotes the words it is about and cites the rule. A person at your firm makes the decision, and Connor keeps the record.