Whatever became of financial promotions rules?

Supervision of financial promotions has gone strangely quiet despite a profusion of non-compliant activity as well as 2012 legislation that introduced the publicised banning of such advertising. Adam Samuel sheds light on a compliance topic that has more than its fair share of deceptive twists.

Adam Samuel BA LLM DipPFS MCISI FCIArb Certs CII (MP&ER) Barrister and Attorney may be contacted at adamsamuel@aol.com. His book, ‘Complaints and Compensation: a Guide to the Financial Services Market’, is available from his website, www.adamsamuel.com.

Five years ago, the regulation of financial promotions was a hot topic. The regulator poured repeated scorn on firms’ attempts to describe things in ‘clear, fair and not misleading’ ways. MiFID had introduced a more coherent rulebook for us all to play with. The Financial Services Authority had published guidance on the elusive concept of prominence. Parliament had quite specifically weighed in on the issue through the debates over the Financial Services Act 2012. Now, the regulator’s main recourse to the subject is to nail some serious miscreants for selling products unfit for human financial consumption (Catalyst and Keydata come to mind). In the meantime, firms run riot on public transport and newspapers, not to mention the Twitter-sphere, only rarely put upon and then by the type of stroppy letter that the 2012 Act was designed to outlaw. The Financial Conduct Authority has not issued a final notice in this area since 2014.