Half of banned UK crypto adverts remain online as regulator fails to penalise companies

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The UK’s financial watchdog has yet to punish any company that failed to remove illegal crypto ads, although half of all banned ads remain online after the watchdog asked them to be removed.

Only 54 percent of the 1,702 alerts were issued Financial Conduct Authority Between October 2023 and October 2024, illegal crypto ads, apps or websites were taken down, according to figures obtained through a Freedom of Information request.

The regulator could fine or prosecute groups that breach the new law in a bid to clean up the UK’s hazy side of promotion. secretly markets. The rules require crypto ads to get permission from the FCA or an FCA-authorized business before being posted online, or face the watchdog’s promise of “sustainable” operations.

But the FCA has yet to use any of the new powers, according to people with knowledge of its procedures targeting fin influencersfinancial influencers who promote such schemes online It filed criminal charges against nine people for promoting an unauthorized scheme involving high-risk derivatives, including reality TV stars. Love island and: The only way is Essex. In October, the FCA said it was interviewing a further 20 finfluencers as a precaution for illegal advertising of financial services products.

People with knowledge of the process said it had taken a significant amount of time to process the prosecutions and research fines, which came just two months after the agency charged finfluencers in March. rules on social media promotion.

The FCA has advertised its large number of crypto ad removal notices, but a month-by-month analysis of the number of content removed and requests to remove content from the FCA shows that about half of the ads are being removed consistently.

Former FCA chairman Charles Rundell said punishing firms that refuse to remove content is essential to reducing the “very disappointing” levels of non-compliance.

“Finally, unless the very real and present threat of legal action is visible to both parties [tech] platforms and authorized exchanges of crypto-assets that issue inappropriate advertising, we are unlikely to see any change,” he told the Financial Times.

Tom Fosh at law firm Eversheds Sutherland, which obtained the data through an FOI survey, says tackling ‘push a mole’ crypto scams solely through alerts will still help raise consumer awareness.

The FCA does not have the power to require online platforms to remove content that has not been approved and instead relies on good faith negotiations with technology platforms.

The financial sector has expressed widespread frustration with the inability of regulators to hold social media companies accountable, often stemming from their services.Payments regulator told the FT in October that tech groups need to do more to help.

“When platforms are motivated enough to block these ads, they can and will,” said Randel, who stepped down as FCA chairman two years ago and is now counsel at law firm Slaughter and May. Ofcom, and where appropriate prosecution authorities, may need to ensure that platforms have that motivation.”

The FCA has persuaded tech groups including Google, Meta and Microsoft’s Bing to ban paid ads not approved by an FCA-authorised panel, but the agreements were voluntary.

The FCA said “good progress” had been made but the regulator remained “concerned about the prevalence of online fraud and scams”.

“Many social media sites have now banned paid advertising for UK financial services from non-FCA authorized firms and we continue to [take] action against those we find violating our rules.”