Tougher regulation on high-risk investments such as crypto will be introduced as part of the Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) Consumer Investments Strategy, the City watchdog announced on Wednesday.
The proposed rules are aimed to make consumers more aware of investment risks and to prevent them from buying into risky ventures through misinformation.
Regulations will include a ban on incentives, such as bonuses for new customers and people who refer new clients, as well as additional risk warnings on financial advertisements.
Now, companies will have to disclose more information on the volatility of their product to new customers to ensure they are not rushed into a misinformed decision.
Kat Mann, savings and investment specialist at Nutmeg said: “Crypto-asset advertisements promising sky-high returns quickly, when the truth is that returns are never guaranteed and the investments are likely to be volatile.”
With the responsibility to regulate crypto assets soon to be handed over from the government to the FCA, it has drawn up plans to safeguard investors’ capital.
Around £140m was lost to crypto fraud between January to October last year, including the high-profile Squid scam. Based on the Netflix show Squid Games, the cryptocurrency disappeared after accumulating $3.4m (£2.5m).
Laura Suter, head of personal finance at AJ Bell, said: "The FCA wants to curb this trend and make it harder for novice investors to sleepwalk into buying high-risk investments.”
A recent abrdn study revealed that 55% of UK adults want to invest the money they have sat on throughout the pandemic in 2022, making it all the more important that they are aware of the investment risks.
Susannah Streeter, senior investment and markets analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown warned investors in crypto, 39% of whom are aged 18-24, of the unregulated nature of the market, describing it as a “wild west.”