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The FCA ordered the withdrawal of nearly 20,000 financial promotions in 2024 – nearly twice as many as in 2023. What drove this – and what steps can you take to make sure your financial promotions are compliant?

Here, we look at why the FCA is seeing a growing number of misleading financial promotions, the increasingly stringent steps they’re taking to deal with them, and how you can ensure your ads make the grade.

Misleading and illegal ads are proliferating

The Financial Conduct Authority’s latest data, published earlier in February, highlighted the work the regulator is doing to tackle misleading promotions – as well as illegal ones; a slightly different issue but one which saw 20 people interviewed under caution. This came about as a result of the FCA’s action against so-called ‘finfluencers’ – social media influencers who promote financial products with no authority to do so.

When we look at misleading – rather than out-and-out illegal – ads, some areas came under particular scrutiny. Adverts for crypto assets, debt solutions, and claims management companies (CMCs) saw a disproportionate number of promotions fall foul of the regulator.

FCA rules are particularly strict when it comes to certain segments of the population. Vulnerable customers, for instance, are protected via specific FCA guidance, and this is reflected in the regulator’s enforcement action.

Many of the 9,197 claims management company promotions the FCA withdrew in 2024 were targeted at vulnerable consumers, largely related to housing disrepair and motor finance claims.

Why might the FCA ban a financial promotion?

The FCA financial promotions rules place particular emphasis on adverts that could lead to people suffering harm. This might be directly – if the interest on a loan is higher than stated, for instance – or indirectly, say if an insurance policy failed to cover the items it advertised.

All financial promotions must be clear, fair and not misleading. The Authority’s rules are media-neutral – meaning they apply to all media, including social media.

In some areas, financial promotions may need to comply with more rigorous FCA requirements. The FCA sets out specific guidance in their Conduct of Business requirements (COBS) for the following:

• Consumer credit
• Retail investments
• General insurance
• Mortgages
• Banking
• Claims management

In recent years, the regulator has strengthened its approach to financial promotions regulation. The Section 21 Gateway, which came into force in 2024, requires firms authorised by the FCA to obtain permission from the FCA before they approve financial promotions for unauthorised businesses.

The Consumer Duty came into effect in 2023, and aims to ensure good outcomes for retail customers, whether in the form of products or ‘customer journeys’, which include financial promotions.

How does the FCA respond to non-compliant ads?

The 20,000 withdrawn ads is quite an eye-catching headline, but in terms of the number of ads that fail to meet the FCA’s standards, it’s actually just the tip of the iceberg.

There are numerous steps the regulator takes before it orders an ad to be withdrawn. Before it gets to this point, if an advert comes to the regulator’s attention, they will assess it based on:

• the extent to which the financial promotion is unclear, unfair and/or misleading
• the types of consumers it is targeted towards

What are the consequences of breaching financial promotions restrictions?

The FCA typically then contact the firm with their concerns, and give them an opportunity to respond. The regulator can ask the firm to change or remove the ad (or not to publish it in its current form, if it hasn’t yet been used). They can also issue warnings or fines – and finally, if they are not satisfied with the firm’s response to their intervention, the FCA can order the ad to be withdrawn.

In other words, sitting behind the 20,000 withdrawn ads will be many more where the regulator identified non-compliance and stepped in to address it, and where the issue was resolved without the ad needing to be banned.

How to make sure your ads are FCA compliant

The stakes are clearly high when it comes to financial promotions compliance. How can you ensure your ads stack up against the FCA’s regulations?

We’ve rounded up some tips in this FCA compliance checklist to help you ensure your ads are compliant.

FCA financial promotions checklist

• Familiarise yourself with FCA guidance and requirements around:
  • Financial promotions
  • Consumer Duty
  • Section 21 Gateway
• If you operate in the sectors mentioned above (consumer credit etc) governed by additional rules, take a look through the relevant Conduct of Business Sourcebooks
• Pay particular attention to areas like risk warnings and their prominence
• Find out what you’re aiming for: the FCA website has some useful case studies illustrating good and bad practice in financial promotions

Taking an organised approach to your marketing content and financial promotions is vital. Non-compliant adverts are less likely to slip through the net if you have a structured process with strong version control, reviews and sign-off.

A watertight marketing approvals process is the bedrock of compliant financial promotions. Simplifying and strengthening your FP approvals not only saves you time and money – it pays huge dividends in terms of compliance.

Familiarity with the FCA’s rules is one thing – but regardless of how well you know the requirements, if your processes allow mistakes to creep in, you may fall foul of the regulator.

Putting in place a robust approvals process bolsters your ability to comply with financial promotions requirements:

• Marketing content and assets are reviewed promptly and efficiently, ensuring no corners are cut in the race to market
• Version control is prioritised, minimising the chances of old or unapproved content being published
• Approvals are baked into your approach, ensuring all materials have the correct sign off

If you want to build more rigour into your marketing approvals processes:

• Document your review and approvals process to ensure the correct steps are always followed
• Ensure everyone involved knows their roles and the expectations of them – for instance, timeframes for turning round reviews; any set processes to follow or platforms to use
• Take a look at our version control checklist for best practices and tips
• Consider automating your reviews and approvals for the ultimate in watertight processes. Introducing an element of automation will mandate the correct steps, and can support you with notifications and reminders to ensure content is approved consistently and quickly. Plus you will create a compliant audit trail in case you ever need to evidence your approvals process.

Enhance your workflow approvals for compliant financial promotions

It’s clear that the FCA is more rigorous than ever when it comes to acting on non-compliant financial promotions.

A structured approach to reviews and approvals is key to ensuring your adverts and other financial promotions meet the regulator’s requirements. Hopefully this blog has given you some ideas on how to achieve this.

If you want more support with financial promotions compliance, you can download our free financial promotions checklist. Or you can find out more about Perivan’s workflow approval platform, which automates and strengthens financial promotions approvals, here.