Social media companies should do extra to cease promoting “dodgy financial promotions” that gas a surge in fraud or face motion, Britain’s Financial Conduct Authority mentioned on Tuesday.

“We are putting them on notice that we expect them to be involved in this process of protecting the community,” the FCA’s head of enforcement Mark Steward informed the watchdog’s annual assembly.

He gave no particular examples of what he described because the adverts “feeding social media with dodgy financial promotions”, however monetary fraud has rocketed, particularly in the course of the coronavirus pandemic, as extra customers store on-line and take a look at digital banking and investing.

Google has prohibited funding commercials that aren’t FCA-authorised – together with for gold and cryptocurrencies – since September 6 this yr.

Steward mentioned the FCA was happy by the Google motion.

“We can see it having an impact already in curtailing the increase in suspicious financial promotions on Google searches,” he mentioned.

“We are talking to all social media firms about this and it’s important that all of them change their processes and procedures otherwise we will have to take action,” Steward added.

The tech companies have mentioned they’re investing in fraud prevention and collaborating with the federal government and regulators.

© Thomson Reuters 2021