India’s Advertising Standards Council (Asci) has made some changes to the rules for financial influencers who advertise products or services. These changes put more responsibility on influencers who talk about money and health.
For financial influencers, also known as find fluencers, Asci says that if they give advice about stocks or investments, they must be register with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi). They also need to show their Sebi registration number along with their name and qualifications. For other financial advice, like insurance or taxes, the influencer must have the right qualifications.
This could be an Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDAI) insurance license, being a chartered accountant (CA), company secretary (CS), and so on. They also have to follow any rules about telling people when they’re getting paid to promote something, as set by the financial regulators.
For health influencers, Asci says they need to have the right qualifications for the advice they’re giving. For example, if they’re talking about medical stuff, they should have a medical degree. If they’re talking about nutrition, they should be a certified nutritionist. Basically, they need to know what they’re talking about to give good advice.
Asci also mentioned that giving wrong or tricky information in categories like banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI), and health and nutrition products and services can hurt people. It can make people lose their money or affect their health, so they need to be very careful about what they say in their ads.
