6% of finfluencers are SEBI-registered, a third still give explicit stock calls
Yobee Team
CFA Institute published Clicks and Credibility 2.0 on 28 July 2026, a second content review of the Indian finfluencers it first counted in its March 2025 report. It re-reads the same creators, from January to October 2025.
The two reads side by side:
| March 2025 | July 2026 | |
|---|---|---|
| SEBI-registered | 2% | 6.3% |
| Give explicit buy, sell or hold calls on a named stock | 33% | 33.3% |
| Registered, among those giving calls | not reported | 12.5% |
| Do not adequately disclose sponsorships or affiliations | 63% | 37.5% |
| Mention fees, tax or lock-in in content | 29% | 72.9% |
| Penalised by SEBI | not reported | 4.2% |
An explicit recommendation, in the report's own definition, is a direct instruction to buy, sell, hold, accumulate or exit a named listed company; sector and macro commentary does not count. The report notes this is its own classification, not SEBI's.
Instagram and YouTube hold over 90% of the following; 82% of followers have invested on a call
Where they publish, and where their audience is:
- All are on Instagram and 94% on YouTube; the two platforms hold 46.7% and 45.3% of cumulative followers. LinkedIn holds 6.1% and X 1.9%.
- The follower base grew 48.3% on Instagram and 44.7% on YouTube between the 2024 and 2025 reads.
- Reels is the dominant format for 79% of creators; about 65% post daily or on alternate days.
- Hindi appears in the content of 81% of creators, English in 69%.
What the audience does with it, from the investor survey in the March 2025 report:
- 82% of those who follow a finfluencer have invested on their recommendation.
- 67% say it is extremely or very important that the finfluencer is SEBI-registered.
- 35% do not check whether theirs is registered; of those who called registration extremely important, 53% did not know the status of their own.
Since 1 May 2026, a regulated entity's post opens with its SEBI number
Two SEBI measures now sit between a regulated firm and that feed:
- Association with unregistered persons who give recommendations or make return claims is prohibited for regulated entities and their agents: no promotion, referral, marketing or business relationship. The amendments date from August 2024, with clarifications in SEBI's circular of 29 January 2025.
- Registered name and registration number must appear on the homepage of a regulated entity's social-media handle and at the beginning of every video or piece of securities-market content, under circular HO/(79)2026-MIRSD-PODMMC of 26 February 2026, for content uploaded on or after 1 May 2026. It covers intermediaries registered under Section 12 of the SEBI Act, AMCs, AIF and InvIT investment managers, REIT managers, and their agents.
The CFA report asks platforms to badge SEBI-registered advisers and analysts. SEBI's February circular puts the equivalent on the post itself: a registered broker's, research analyst's or AMC's content in the same feed as the 94% that are not registered now opens with its registration, and the firm cannot get there through an unregistered creator's account.
Yobee's Publisher helps validates & automate dissemination of a research desk's recommendation to various channels like WhatsApp, YouTube, Telegram, LinkedIn and X.
The next CFA read is the first taken after the May 2026 rule
SEBI told Parliament it had flagged 1.33 lakh misleading or manipulative posts to platforms as of 28 February 2026. The next CFA read of the same accounts, the first taken with the registration-display rule in force, will show whether the number appears where the rule puts it, and whether 6% moves.
The content reviews cover 51 finfluencers in the 2025 report and 48 in 2026, the same accounts less three that left social media, just over half of them with more than 10 lakh followers; the investor survey covered 1,615 retail investors.