New Zealand's Financial Markets Authority (FMA) has joined 16 international counterparts in the second annual Global Week of Action targeting unlawful finfluencers, a coordinated enforcement and supervision effort now spanning five continents. The operation, which began on 20 April and runs through this week, includes major retail trading hubs such as Singapore, Hong Kong, the United Arab Emirates and Australia.
As part of the campaign, the FMA contacted 14 finfluencers active across social media platforms. The regulator said these interventions have already resulted in misleading or harmful content being removed, including advertisements directed at New Zealanders. Some operators have scaled back their offerings, while others have stopped serving New Zealand customers altogether.
The 2026 edition of the Global Week of Action marks a significant expansion from the inaugural operation in 2025, which involved nine regulators led by the UK's Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). The current line-up includes ASIC in Australia, Belgium's FSMA, Brazil's CVM, three Canadian agencies, the Danish FSA, Hong Kong's SFC, India's SEBI, the Central Bank of Ireland, Norway's Finanstilsynet, two Qatari regulators, the Monetary Authority of Singapore, the UAE Capital Market Authority and the FCA.
Regulatory focus on misleading promotions and copy trading
Samantha McGuire, manager of regulatory services at the FMA, said the international coordination reflects the rapid growth of social media as a primary channel for retail financial information. She emphasised that cross-border collaboration is crucial to strengthen consumer protection, guard against misleading financial promotions and support a fair online environment.
The FMA noted that most finfluencers operate within the law and can help broaden access to investing. However, it has observed a rise in cases where content creators cross regulatory boundaries or mislead followers. Copy trading has emerged as a particular concern, with finfluencers encouraging followers to mirror trades as an easy route to profit. According to the FMA, such offerings often involve complex, high-risk products and are promoted using images of luxury cars, designer goods and other displays of wealth that downplay the underlying risks.
That pattern is consistent with findings from regulators across the coalition. The FCA has criminally charged three finfluencers, Charles Hunter, Kayan Kalipha and Luke Desmaris, over the promotion of unauthorised contracts for difference (CFDs), citing the use of lavish lifestyles, sometimes falsely, to market success. ASIC issued 18 warning notices last year to Australian finfluencers suspected of promoting CFDs and over-the-counter derivatives without a licence.
Divergent enforcement approaches and rising retail demand
Enforcement intensity varies among jurisdictions. The FCA has issued more than 50 warning alerts, triggered over 650 content takedown requests and referred to a case in which about 90,000 retail investors lost roughly £75 million through a firm promoted by online personalities. Hong Kong's SFC secured the city's first custodial sentence against a finfluencer in November, when Chau Pak Yin received a six-week prison term for operating a paid Telegram group offering unlicensed investment advice.
The UAE's Securities and Commodities Authority has adopted a licensing-led approach, becoming the first regulator to require a licence for individuals producing financial content online. The UK has not signalled any move toward licensing, relying instead on enforcement under existing financial promotion rules. New Zealand's FMA is closer to the enforcement-led model and does not operate a standalone licensing regime for online content creators. It is also moving to tighten its retail derivatives framework, having proposed leverage caps of up to 30:1 on CFDs for retail clients, and previously cancelled the derivatives issuer licence of Rockfort Markets after a prolonged compliance dispute.
The regulatory efforts are unfolding against strong demand for online financial content. A BaFin survey of 1,000 recent investors found that more than half of Gen Y and Gen Z respondents view social media as a viable alternative to traditional financial advice, and 57% of those following finfluencers had purchased products directly via shared links. A CMC Markets study cited by the FCA reported that 33% of retail traders are more likely to act on a trade when an influencer they follow highlights an opportunity.
In New Zealand, the FMA is complementing enforcement with education, running a week of social media posts for consumers and finfluencers, releasing a podcast on sector risks and updating its guidance pages for both audiences.
