No proposal before govt to regulate financial influencers on social media says, Nirmala Sitharaman

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman warned the public on Sunday about the risks of following financial influencers on social media platforms, saying that many of them are driven by ulterior motives or promote fraudulent schemes.Speaking at an event in Bengaluru, Ms Sitharaman said that while there are some genuine experts who offer sound advice on investing and saving, there are also many who mislead people or lure them into dubious apps that promise high returns but are actually Ponzi schemes.

"I have no proposal to regulate them at this stage," she said. "But yes, a word of caution is important. If there are three or four people giving us good advice, there are seven out of 10 who are probably driven by some other considerations."She added that the government is working with the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY) and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to clamp down on such apps and protect the hard-earned money of the citizens.