90% of investors find fin-fluencers credible, shows SEBI study

SEBI has been actively taking down fin-fluencer accounts for frauds and misinformed guidance but a SEBI study showed 93% of Indian investors found fin-fluencers to be moderate to highly credible.

The study conducted by Kantar and SEBI surveyed 91,950 households regarding investing behaviour and published the report. The report found of the majority which found fin-fluencers credible , 62% even went ahead and made investment decisions based on their recommendations. Moreover, SEBI also found that 9 of 10 people consumed fin-fluencer content from Youtube. SEBI has been taking continuous actions to curb influencers from providing financial advice. As of October 2024, SEBI reportedly took down 70,000 fin-influencer accounts but going by data in the latest survey, credibility is still high. 

A major reason could also be the growing investing culture in India. The number of registered investors increased fivefold to more than 2 crore registered investors in India between 2019-20 and 2024-25. While availability of fin-fluencers is one of the many triggers to begin investing, ease of processes is also key enablers to start investing, SEBI found in the report. More than 85% of the intermediaries surveyed said that ease of processes were the enablers to start investing. About 55% of the intermediaries cited positive media coverage and success stories as an enabler. However, the biggest reason was also the ease of opening documents and friendly trading platforms, the study found. 

Among other data points, the study also records the behaviour of investor awareness. The regulator found that 80% of investors preferred videos for investor education, 69%, depended on social media posts and 50% of the them depended on online courses. The question was administered to 53,537 respondents and 60% of them consumed information to save themselves from financial frauds. 

SEBI-Kantar survey concluded that although 90% of the people who approached SEBI for grievance redressal felt satisfied with the outcomes, but only 20% of the investors were aware of the mechanisms and that efforts need to be directed towards that direction.