Navigating SEBI’s Vigilance On Finfluencers
- IJLLR Journal
- 16 hours ago
- 1 min read
Gauri Kulkarni & Rachana D, BBA LLB, MKPM RV Institute of Legal Studies, Bengaluru
ABSTRACT
Financial influencers or the “Finfluencers” are social media influencers, who give financial advice on various topics such as stocks, cryptocurrency, cover budgeting, financial trend tracking etc. They are, in layman’s terms, individuals on social media platforms such as Instagram, YouTube, Twitter etc., who give opinions and break down complex financial concepts into simple language making it easier for potential and interested investors to gain information ultimately helping them in investing.
Financial influencers often being unqualified and unregistered furnished advice to individuals and retail investors and further partnered up with financial entities and earned fat commissions which subsequently resulted in them influencing market trends as well. This being brought to the attention of Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), significantly resulted in a series of regulatory guidelines. These guidelines and regulations aimed to tackle unregulated investment advice, curb misleading information and penalise unregulated activities in general.
The authors, through this paper, aim to firstly analyse the previous regulations and guidelines. Secondly, expound the current regulations with respect to finfluencers and finally, the authors will conclude with the recommendations.
Keywords: Finfluencers, SEBI, unregulated investment advice, misleading information, social media platforms, material considerations, Investment advisers, research analysts, ASCI guidelines
