On Wednesday, the Financial Conduct Authority said its first year under the 2025-30 strategy led to 3 arrests and 650 takedown requests on social media as part of an international crackdown on illegal finfluencer promotions involving nine regulators.
The figures appeared in the FCA’s 2025/26 annual report. The finfluencer operation, conducted in June 2025, also generated 7 cease-and-desist letters and 50 warning alerts.
“Our message to finfluencers is loud and clear. They must act responsibly and only promote financial products where they are authorised to do so, or face the consequences,” said Steve Smart, joint executive director of enforcement and market oversight at the FCA.
Criminal convictions and automation
The regulator reported 17 criminal convictions over the year. In two insider-dealing cases, Redinel Korfuzi was given 6 years and Oerta Korfuzi 5 years, making a combined 11-year prison sentence after convictions linked to roughly £1m of insider dealing and money laundering. It also fined 12 individuals a total of £1.77m for market abuse offences.
The FCA also said AI automation has reduced simple case-handling time from up to 4 hours to about 6 minutes, leaving supervisors freer to focus on higher-priority work. For firms using social creators or more aggressive online promotion, the UK regulator is now working internationally and moving cases through more quickly.
