The National Securities Market Commission (CNMV) has scoured social networks and discovered that there are more than 50 influencers with numerous followers who call themselves experts and make investment recommendations.
Faced with this situation, the body led by Rodrigo Buenaventura yesterday issued a statement warning that the fence will be tightened on this type of professional, since they do not comply with current regulations to be a financial advisor.
Usually, this type of advice is offered by professionals who work in investment services companies or credit institutions and who follow certain criteria in accordance with European legislation, which requires independence of the recommended value, as well as an investment strategy that involves buying, hold and sell financial instruments.
The first step that the CNMV is going to take is to contact them to “request clarifications about their activity”. In the event that there are indications that they work as professionals, they will be required to comply with the obligations established in the market abuse regulation and its implementing regulations. This regulation is established in the EU Regulation 596/2014 on market abuse and the delegated regulation EU 2016/958 that develops it.
The main objectives of this regulation is that the recommendations are presented in a clear, exact and objective way. In addition, it requires information on the interests of that person in recommending a specific financial instrument. And, finally, it will analyze whether the recommendation is made electronically or verbally. It is true that European legislation authorizes people to work as "experts", but their reports have to be prepared and disclosed in accordance with legal requirements.
At the moment, the CNMV does not speak of sanctions, nor has it made the names public, but in the future it could sanction or make known the names of some of that fifty pseudo-advisors, who operate in Spain and are very active on social networks . Last year, the CNMV did issue warnings to celebrities such as the soccer player Andrés Iniesta, who advertised cryptocurrencies.
However, the portal financer.com did launch a list last August of famous economists and investor influencers who have huge numbers of followers on channels such as Twitter.
