ASIC's appetite for social media enforcement has grown significantly. What was once an afterthought for regulators is now a priority area, with dedicated surveillance of financial services firms' social media accounts. If you're in financial services and you're posting on social media, ASIC is watching. Or soon will be.
What ASIC looks for
Misleading or deceptive conduct
The most common issue. Posts that overstate returns, understate risks, cherry-pick performance data, or make promises about future outcomes. ASIC assesses the overall impression of the post as a typical consumer would see it. Not how a compliance lawyer would interpret it.
Unlicensed financial advice
Providing personal financial advice without a licence. This can happen inadvertently in comments when responding to specific questions about someone's situation. A general post about investing is fine; replying "yes, you should sell those shares" to a commenter is potentially unlicensed advice.
Inadequate disclosure
Promoting financial products without required disclaimers, Product Disclosure Statement references, or general advice warnings. Social media's character limits don't exempt you from disclosure obligations.
Practical examples
- Allowed: "The ASX gained 2.3% this week. Here's our analysis of what drove the move and what it might mean for portfolios." (Market commentary with general analysis.)
- Risky: "Property prices always go up over the long term. Invest now." (Misleading generalisation.)
- Not allowed: "Our fund returned 15% last year. Invest today for similar returns." (Past performance as guarantee of future results, no PDS reference.)
- Allowed: "What is dollar-cost averaging? Here's how it works." (Educational content.)
- Risky: "You should be dollar-cost averaging into ETFs right now." (Crosses into general advice without disclaimer.)
Building a compliant workflow
The safest approach combines technology and human review. AI-powered compliance screening catches the obvious issues. Misleading language, missing disclaimers, performance claims without context. Human reviewers handle the nuanced judgment calls. Brand and Go's Compliance Portal is designed for exactly this workflow, with AI scoring against your uploaded compliance documents and a review queue for flagged content.
The audit trail
ASIC expects financial services firms to maintain records of their marketing communications. Every social media post, every compliance review, every approval decision should be logged. If ASIC asks "who approved this post and when?" you need to be able to answer. Brand and Go maintains this audit trail automatically.