The Financial Conduct Authority has spent around £368,000 on scam warning messages in relation to investments, pensions and loan fee fraud.
In a letter to MP Mel Stride, dated January 19, FCA boss Nikhil Rathi outlined the regulator’s expenditure as of November 2021.
The letter followed the oral evidence session the FCA had with the Treasury Committee on December 8 in which it was asked whether the word “investment” should be used in relation to cryptocurrencies, including within cryptocurrency advertisements.
The FCA’s costs for delivering scam warning messages over the past three years was as follows:
In 2019, the total across the three platforms was £403,531 and for 2020 this was £443,939. For 2021 it totalled 368,805.
However, the figure does not include spending on other activities and campaigns which the regulator carried out through channels such as those run by Microsoft, Snapchat and TikTok.
Rathi said: “In December 2021, Google offered the FCA $3m in advertising credits to be spent on its’ Google Ads and YouTube platforms, which we are considering how to use most effectively.
“Our discussions with Google over recent months have also resulted in positive changes to Google’s policies for verifying potential advertisers.”
An example of this was the FCA’s InvestSmart campaign launched last year, aimed at warning investors about the dangers of investing in high risk, high return investments. This is set to run over five years at a cost of…
