Article by Phil
I don’t know about you but I’m not a big Tik Tok user, but I do think I know what it is! Unsurprisingly, because of its popularity with young people, it has also become overrun by so called “influencers”. These are people with large numbers of followers who promote products and services to their followers in return for financial payments.
Crypto currency is a particular area of concern for regulators on Tik Tok.
However, there are now calls from Financial Planners for regulation to be introduced in the Tik Tok mortgage market. It seems that influencers are getting involved in mortgage “advice” which is strictly regulated as it’s a financial promotion. Regulated advisers on the platform are asking the FCA to get involved to clamp down on unregulated players.
Who knew Tik Tok users would be interested in mortgages? But it seems so.
One firm Kag Financial claims to be getting 300 enquiries a month from its 18,000 Tik Tok followers. That seems like a good return, so perhaps it is no wonder that unregulated players are getting involved. After all there are still introducer fees to be had in the mortgage market.
The other area concerning Financial Planners for regulation is property purchases.
It seems that lots of influencers are boasting about how much money they have made from buying and selling property, which could be driving the mortgage enquiry numbers. You can spot the non-regulated influencers quite easily because their videos do not carry the standard risk and disclaimer notices required by the FCA. The complaint is that Tik Tok seem to be allowing these “adverts” to continue without checking their authorisation.
These videos have racked up over 10 million views and almost a million likes, so the issue is widespread.
Interestingly, some mortgage advisers do not want more regulation. They argue that the platform is good for building awareness of mortgages and financial services more widely. Including making people aware of how to spot scams.
Although the FCA will have its work cut out, I’d expect it to get more involved in Tik Tok going forward.
