NewZealand's Financial Markets Authority (FMA) said today (Wednesday) it hasjoined 16 counterparts in a second annual Global Week of Action againstunlawful finfluencers, a coordinated push that now spans five continents andsweeps in major retail trading hubs including Singapore, Hong Kong, the UnitedArab Emirates and Australia. The FMA statedit contacted 14 finfluencers active across social media platforms as part ofthe operation, which started on April 20 and runs through this week.Singapore Summit: Meet the largestAPAC brokers you know (and those you still don't!)The Kiwiregulator saidthose contacts have already produced results, with misleading or harmfulcontent taken down, including advertisements aimed at New Zealanders. Someoperators have trimmed the scope of their offerings, and others have stoppedserving New Zealand customers altogether, the agency said.Global Coalition Doublesin Size After 2025 DebutSamanthaMcGuire, manager of regulatory services at the FMA, said the internationalcoordination reflects how quickly social media has become a primary channel forretail financial information. "Asfinancial promotions become more prevalent on social media, internationalcollaboration is crucial in our ongoing efforts to strengthen consumerprotection, safeguard individuals from misleading financial promotions andsupport a fair online environment," McGuire said.The FMAsaid most finfluencers operate within the law and can help broaden access toinvesting, but acknowledged it has seen a rise in cases whereoperators stray outside regulatory boundaries or mislead followers.The 2026edition marks a sharp expansion from last year's inaugural operation, whichbrought together nine regulators led by the UK's Financial Conduct Authority.The current line-up includes ASIC in Australia, Belgium's FSMA, Brazil's CVM,three Canadian agencies, the Danish FSA, Hong Kong's SFC, India's SEBI, theCentral Bank of Ireland, Norway's Finanstilsynet, two Qatari regulators, theMonetary Authority of Singapore, theUAE Capital Market Authority and the FCA.Copy Trading and LuxuryLifestyle Content Flagged as Priority RisksCopytrading has become a specific area of concern, the FMA said, with finfluencerspushing followers to mirror trades as a supposedly easy path to profit. Theagency said those offerings often involve complex, high-risk products, andpromotions are frequently dressed up with images of luxury cars, designer goodsand other signals of wealth that downplay the actual risks.Thatpattern echoes findings from regulators across the coalition. The FCA this yearcriminally charged threefinfluencers,Charles Hunter, Kayan Kalipha and Luke Desmaris, over the promotion of unauthorized contractsfor difference, with the agency citing the use of "lavish lifestyles,often falsely, to promote success."ASIC lastyear issued 18 warning notices to Australian finfluencerssuspected of pushing CFDs and over-the-counter derivatives without a license.Enforcement Track RecordIs Uneven Across JurisdictionsHow farregulators are willing to go varies widely. The FCA has published more than 50warning alerts, triggered over 650 content takedown requests and referenced onecase in which around 90,000 retail investors lost roughly £75 million through a firm promoted by onlinepersonalities. Hong Kong'sSFC secured the city's first custodial sentence against afinfluencer lastNovember, when Chau Pak Yin was handed a six-week prison term for running apaid Telegram group offering unlicensed investment advice.The UAE'sSecurities and Commodities Authority has taken a different approach, becomingthe first regulator globally torequire a license for individuals producing financial content online. TheUK, by contrast, has not signaled any move toward licensing, relying instead onenforcement under existing financial promotion rules.New Zealand's FMA sits closer to the enforcement-led model,without a standalone licensing regime for online content creators. Theregulator is already moving to tighten its retail derivatives framework morebroadly, having proposed leverage caps of up to 30:1 on CFDs offered to retailclients, and it previously cancelled the derivatives issuer license of RockfortMarkets after an extended compliance dispute.Demand for OnlineFinancial Content Keeps GrowingTheregulatory push is running into a powerful tailwind. A BaFin survey of 1,000 recent investors found that more than half ofrespondents from Gen Y and Gen Z view social media as a viable alternative totraditional financial advice, and 57% of those following finfluencers hadbought products directly through links the creators shared.A separateCMC Markets study cited by the FCA found that 33% of retail traders are morelikely to act on a trade when a followed influencer flags an opportunity.For NewZealand, the FMA said it is running a week of educational social media postsfor consumers and finfluencers, has released a podcast on the sector's risks,and has refreshed its guidance pages for both audiences.This article was written by Damian Chmiel at www.financemagnates.com.