Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the potential implications for his policies of trends in the number of investment products advertised online by companies not authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority to sell financial products in the UK; and if he will make a statement.

The Government is taking action to further protect consumers from potentially harmful financial promotions, through the introduction of a financial promotions gateway. This regulatory gateway, which was legislated for in the Financial Services and Markets Act 2023, aims to improve the quality of financial promotions that are made by unauthorised firms, by allowing only those authorised firms that the FCA assesses as suitable and with sufficient expertise to approve the promotions of unauthorised firms. It will also give the FCA greater oversight of the approval of financial promotions and reduce the number of authorised firms that are able to undertake such approvals.

In addition, the FCA has worked with large online platforms to ensure that paid-for advertising for UK financial services hosted on these platforms has been approved by an FCA-authorised firm. This has had the effect of significantly reducing the opportunity for fraudsters to advertise their scams online as legitimate financial products.