CrowdControlHQ looks forward to anticipated FCA guidelines for social media in financial organisations

ENGLAND, UK: Social media risk management company, CrowdControlHQ, expects to see new guidelines from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) expanded to reflect the increased use of social media, its evolving complexity and the risk associated with this method of communication.

In April 2013, the FCA and the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) took over from the Financial Services Authority (FSA) as the bodies that regulate the financial services industry. The FSA in 2010 had originally produced a guideline which simply required promotions and communications by financial services organisations using new media to meet the requirements for stand-alone compliance.

This meant that every social media post by a financial services business could be construed as a digital financial promotion. Therefore, every post has to fulfil the FCA's regulations on its own, which is not always easy given the brevity of social media as a communication channel.

New FCA guidelines are due for publication in the coming weeks and CrowdControlHQ expects to see a more detailed set of rules surrounding the use of social media and directives in terms of the management of risk associated with digital media channels.