On 12 June 2025, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) issued a press release stating that it had issued warning notices to 18 social media ‘finfluencers’ suspected of unlawfully promoting high-risk financial products and providing unlicenced financial advice.

Following the issuance of INFO Sheet 269 ‘Discussing financial products and services online’ in 2022, ASIC has observed a noticeable drop in social media posts spruiking financial products and services by unauthorised finfluencers.

But ASIC’s current concerns lie with finfluencers positioning themselves as so-called trading experts, who are providing unauthorised financial product advice and promoting high-risk, complex investment products that can cause real consumer harm, such as contracts for difference and over the counter derivative products.

Regulators around the world are closely looking at unlawful finfluencers – see this blog for instance.