Financial influencers, or finfluencers, are a new business norm, and the Securities and Futures Commission will conduct a comprehensive review on how to regulate them, said Eric Yip Chee-hang, executive director of the intermediaries division.
Speaking at a LegCo meeting on Monday, Yip said the regulator began working closely with the industry last year to understand and discuss whether new regulatory considerations are needed, including optimizations to licensing and codes of conduct.
He mentioned that financial influencers no longer operate under the traditional relationship between individuals and traditional brokerages; instead, it is a relationship between individuals and platforms.
However, many of these platforms are not based in Hong Kong, and their reach has no boundaries, making it a pain point faced by global regulators, he stated.
Yip believes that the priority is to engage in dialogue and exchanges with these platforms, in the hope that they realize that when they possess massive user traffic and activity, they must also assume a certain level of responsibility.
