Guidelines for ‘influencers’ giving financial advice will come in two months: SEBI

Mumbai Markets regulator Sebi will finalize rules and guidelines on unregistered ‘influencers’ giving investment advice on social media in a month or two. Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) Chairperson Madhavi Puri Buch gave this information to reporters after the meeting of the Board of Directors on Wednesday night. He said a discussion paper on regulation of financial ‘influencers’ is being prepared and will be released for public comments in the next two months.

In the past few years, social media platforms have become flooded with experts offering advice on financial matters. Most of these are not even registered with SEBI as financial advisors. SEBI has been cautioning people in the past about people giving financial advice on social media platforms like YouTube, Instagram, Telegram, WhatsApp and Twitter. Along with this, he had also mentioned to take action against these unregistered consultants.

The Sebi chief said, we have no problem with someone wanting to educate investors about the market and investments. But if they give investment advice without any reason and are not even registered with SEBI, then we have a serious problem with it. His statement comes at a time when the Income Tax Department is sending notices to the country’s top 35 social media ‘influencers’ for non-payment of tax worth crores of rupees. Last week, a search operation was also conducted at the locations of 13 big YouTubers in Kerala. There is a buzz that some ‘influencers’ get a hefty amount as commission based on viewership on social media platforms and they also earn from that by trading in the stocks they recommend.

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