Creator Economy Summit| "Talk to us": Sebi WTM and experts ask finfluencers to be part of the solution

Finfluencers were asked to come forward and report bad practices by peers.

Finfluencers were called to come forward and be part of the solution, to ensure that engaging and responsible content is put out, at the Moneycontrol Creator Economy Summit.

This was suggested by regulatory experts and industry leaders, in a panel discussion moderated by N Mahalakshmi.

Ananth Narayan Gopalakrishnan, a Whole-time Member of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), told influencers to come forward and speak to the regulator.

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“Talk to us, you are creative people. Tell us what (business) model that could work,” he said, in an interaction with the audience. Gopalakrishnan recently passed the order that fined finfluencer Baap of Chart, Mohammad Nasiruddin Ansari, over Rs 17 crore for selling investment advice without registration.

He said that the regulator has a resource limitation on policing the financial influencer (finfluencer) community and added that there are ways in which the regulator resolves that such as working with bodies such as BSE Administration and Supervision Limited (BASL).

“If changes are required to accommodate this new generation of content creators, then we can have a dialogue,” he said.

According to him, self-policing would be most effective.

“If you want your community (of finfluencers) to gain, then tell us what Is going wrong. It gives us a lot of comfort to know that here is a community that is taking care of its problems,” he said.

The CEO of the Advertising Standards Council of India, Manisha Kapoor also suggested a similar approach from finfluencers.

“It’s good for the more established influencers in this space to demand better accountability from their peers and influencers,” she said.

The Chief Growth Officer of Angel One, Prabhakar Tiwari suggested creating a digital infrastructure through which various stakeholders—such as brokerages, influencers or media persons—can report the bad elements.

A lawyer who has worked closely with the regulator and partner at Finsec Law Advisors, Anil Choudhary spoke about the challenges Sebi faces when regulating such content. He pointed out that it cannot regulate every piece of content and that it cannot disregard people’s right to freedom of speech.

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Therefore, there is a need for the content creators to be more responsible.

Choudhary said that the regulator could perhaps have a closer oversight over finfluencers with a larger following, for example, those with over a million following.