Singapore regulator introduces conduct requirements for digital advertising activities of FIs and warns “finfluencers”
On 25 September 2025, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (“MAS”) announced it will issue advisory letters to five content creators who may have provided financial advice without a licence. On the same day it also issued:
- Guidelines on Standards of Conduct for Digital Advertising Activities, which will take effect from 25 March 2026 (the “Digital Advertising Guidelines”); and
- A guide on "7 must-knows when sharing financial information online" in collaboration with the Advertising Standards Authority of Singapore (the “ASAS Guide”).
Digital Advertising Guidelines
In overview, the Digital Advertising Guidelines cover:
- Scope. Applies to all financial institutions (“FIs”) and their digital marketers who advertise financial products and services to customers via digital media. Digital marketers can include external digital marketers such as influencers/finfluencers, affiliate marketers, advertising agencies and advertising network providers.
- Timing. FIs have 6 months to comply, and the Digital Advertising Guidelines take effect on 25 March 2026.
- Board and Senior Management. The board and senior management of FIs should:
- set the right tone for conducting digital advertising activities responsibly and professionally;
- ensure that the safeguards in the Digital Advertising Guidelines (where relevant) are incorporated into the FI’s policies, procedures, systems and processes;
- ensure that the risks posed by their FI’s digital advertising activities are properly assessed and addressed; and
- if they delegate responsibilities for the proper conduct of digital advertising activities to other persons or committees, exercise appropriate oversight to ensure that delegated responsibilities are effectively carried out.
- Safeguards. The following are safeguards that an FI should put in place and adhere to when conducting digital advertising activities:
- FI should assess and ensure that their choice of digital media is appropriate for advertising financial products and services to customers. This includes assessing market conduct and reputational risk associated with the digital medium and considering if the FI has the ability to promptly locate, modify or remove advertisements disseminated through the digital medium where necessary.
- FIs should assess the characteristics and limitations of digital media, address the associated risks, and ensure that important and meaningful disclosures are presented prominently and clearly. For instance, FIs should ensure that each advertisement when viewed on its own is not misleading and format constraints does not result in the truncation or omission of key information on salient risks, provisions, and other caveats.
- FIs should assess and select appropriate digital marketers, and ensure these digital marketers are adequately apprised and comply with the FIs’ digital advertising practices and regulatory requirements. This includes having a framework to assess and select appropriate digital marketers; and ensuring that digital marketers have a clear understanding of the FI’s advertising and relevant regulatory requirements before conducting advertising activities and are kept informed of all updates to the FI’s practices and relevant regulatory requirements (e.g. through conducting regular trainings or formal agreements).
- FIs should monitor digital advertising activities conducted by their digital marketers to ensure effective oversight of these activities. This includes deploying surveillance methods to detect non-compliance or misconduct by digital marketers and taking immediate action against unauthorised social media accounts or advertisements.
- FIs should take appropriate disciplinary action against digital marketers to deter malpractices and errant conduct related to digital advertising. For example; implementing more stringent monitoring controls, issuing warnings, enforcing penalties as set out in the relevant agreement or other corrective actions.
In particular, MAS made clear in the Digital Advertising Guidelines that FIs will be held responsible for all content that they and their digital marketers re-post or share, including customer testimonials and third-party endorsements. FIs are also expected to:
- ensure digital marketers used have relevant qualifications and understand the FI’s target audience;
- monitor advertisements and content posted online, including those conducted by external digital marketers; and
- take immediate action against unauthorised social media accounts or advertisements detected through its surveillance, including requesting the removal of unauthorised accounts or content and alerting customers through official channels about the unauthorised activity.
The aim is to address misleading advertisements and use of digital media for advertising without proper authorisation.
ASAS Guide
The ASAS Guide sets out 7 must-knows when sharing financial information online.
- How do I share responsibly?
- What are some financial tips that I can consider sharing with my followers?
- When do I need to have a license for providing financial advice?
- When do I need to have a license for dealing in capital markets products?
- How do I check if a financial institution is legit to promote?
- How do I keep my promotional content professional and complaint with advertising rules?
- Should I disclose sponsored content?
In particular, the ASAS Guide advises content creators to share financial content responsibly by considering their followers' financial interests and well-being, and by not exploiting "FOMO", or the fear of missing out, and inducing panic.
Advisory Letters
MAS has not announced the identities of the five content creators to whom it will issue advisory letters to. The relevant details have been kept confidential.
Such letters are not in the nature of formal enforcement action by MAS but advisory in nature. However, these advisory letters can be taken into account in any future investigations or enforcement action against the same person.
