Guidelines soon for social media influencers on finance and stock market: SEBI

Markets watchdog Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) will come out with a discussion paper to frame guidelines to control unsolicited financial and stock market advise from social media influencers as also from unregulated investment advisors.

Addressing a meeting of the Association of Registered Investment Advisers in Mumbai, SEBI Whole Time Member Ananth Narayan Gopalakrishnan said some unscrupulous people are misusing their SEBI registration to further their businesses and as the regulator "we don't want (that) to happen".

"We'll come out with a discussion paper seeking inputs for making effective measures to control unsolicited financial and market advises from social media influencers and also from unregulated investment advisors.

"After inputs from market participants, and other stakeholders, we'll issue guidelines to rein them in," Gopalakrishnan said.

There is also the issue of unregistered investment advisors, who pose greater risks to gullible investors. More important, "we see examples of misuse of their Sebi registrations by even some registered advisors," he said.

"We want self-regulatory bodies to evolve so that some bodies beyond Sebi can do the policing. We're concerned about unregistered investment advisors and the social media is enhancing that," he noted.

SEBI's proposal comes against the backdrop of many social media influencers providing advice about stock investments without a licence.

Earlier, SEBI clamped down on some WhatsApp groups and Telegram channels, which were used to leak key market moving data.