INTHEBLACK November 2026 - Magazine - Page 46
FEATURE
“[Finfluencers] have to be educating people how to be smarter
about their finances without giving specific financial advice.”
DAWN CHER, FINFLUENCER
First, she resists the temptation to tell
her audience what assets they should buy
and sell. Second, she focuses on educating
her followers — whether it is about
exchange-traded funds (ETFs) or
cash-investment strategies — in a way that
leaves viewers to make their own choices.
“You have to be educating people
how to be smarter about their finances
without giving specific financial advice,”
Cher says.
To stay on track, she engages in regular
discussions with compliance teams in
licensed financial institutions and was in
consultation with the Monetary Authority
of Singapore (MAS) on rules and protocols.
This follows MAS’s ruling that Singaporean
content creators must be regulated under the
Finance Advisers Act 2001 (SG) if they are
giving financial advice, as well as guidelines
on promotional or sponsored content.
Cher welcomes clearer guidelines,
saying they can help her manage the
expectations of followers and distinguish
her from less-responsible finfluencers.
A GLOBAL APPROACH
Cher’s approach sits apart from unqualified
finfluencers who post financial advice content
on social media for profit without the
licensing or regulatory obligations that govern
professional advice. Without these guardrails,
which typically include the need to assess
a client’s full financial situation, this content
can lead consumers to poor and potentially
disastrous investment decisions.
In April 2026, the Australian Securities
and Investments Commission (ASIC)
joined in a second Global Week of Action
Against Unlawful Finfluencers campaign,
alongside regulators from 16 other regions
including Hong Kong, India, Singapore
and New Zealand. The Australian
regulator subsequently issued warnings
46 INTHEBLACK November 2026
to four influencers suspected of providing
unlicensed advice or making misleading
claims, including promises of guaranteed
returns. ASIC has also reviewed how licensed
financial-services businesses are supervising
finfluencers who are operating as authorised
representatives, reminding them of their
supervisory responsibilities.
ASIC commissioner Alan Kirkland says
it is true that people can get useful financial
information from social media, “but we have
got really clear laws in Australia saying that
if you are giving financial advice, you have
got to be appropriately licensed or authorised,”
he says.
Kirkland’s concerns come on the back
of ASIC’s recent research from its financial
information website, Moneysmart, which
shows that 63 per cent of Gen Z Australians
(currently aged 16 to 30) trust social media
for financial information. More than half say
they somewhat or completely trust financial
information from finfluencers.
For its part, ASIC is constantly monitoring
finfluencing activity on social media, as well
as acting on tip-offs from the public and
finance and accounting firms, about potentially
unethical finfluencers. Kirkland believes
the scope of the international crackdown
across regulators from the Asia-Pacific
region, North America, Europe, the UK,
South America and the Middle East
is a possible game changer because in
the past individual regulators have struggled
to identify and punish finfluencers from
outside their specific jurisdiction. “The message
is intended to be: wherever you may be in
the world, you cannot escape the law,”
Kirkland says.
In the past year, the global crackdown
has resulted in a combination of arrests
and criminal proceedings, issuance of
cease-and-desist letters to influencers,
and 650 social media take-down requests.
