If you haven’t noticed already, creators and influencers have become powerful drivers of financial decisions, often blurring the line between education, opinion and promotion. That is what makes the proposed unified Common Advertisement Code (CAC) by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), perhaps the most consequential overhaul of financial services advertising since the Sebi (Intermediaries) Regulations, 2008.
The CAC seeks to sit in place of six existing entity-specific advertisement frameworks covering stock brokers, mutual fund AMCs, investment advisors, research analysts, portfolio managers and online bond platform providers.
In a nutshell, the Sebi has sought to introduce four structural changes: First, celebrity endorsements would be permitted at brand level only with prior approval. Second, prior approval for routine advertisements would be replaced by post-issuance reporting within 24 hours. Third, dark patterns, false claims and misleading testimonials would be explicitly prohibited. Finally, there would be a unified digital portal for advertisement submissions.
The last two requirements are self-expalnatory and can only strenthen compliance and accountability. “As more financial advertising moves to digital and influencer-led platforms, a common framework can strengthen accountability and consumer trust,” says Manisha Kapoor, CEO & secretary general, ASCI. “What matters most is that consumers are able to rely on the information they see and make informed decisions based on communication that is clear, transparent and responsible.”
The first two require closer scrutiny. The first thing the regulator is trying to do is align financial advertising with an increasingly celebrity-influencer-driven market. The regulator has drawn the influencer line at 500,000 followers on a single platform, a threshold that would include AI-generated personas like Kyra and Naina, virtual influencers who already run brand campaigns with thousands of followers on Instagram. That inclusion is not hypothetical caution. By bringing celebrities, finfluencers, and even AI avatars under one common framework, the securities regulator is acknowledging that influence today isn’t defined by profession but by impact. The proposal is less about restricting influencer marketing as a tool; it’s more about ensuring that financial communication remains responsible, transparent, and in the consumer’s best interest, say advertising industry experts.
The follower count Sebi has chosen works on a simple logic — it is a proxy for reach and potential market impact, not a stamp of approval, which is really the opposite of how the social media blue tick operates. A blue tick signals “trust this account”, while crossing the threshold under Sebi’s code effectively signals “this is what this account is allowed to claim”. Says Yasin Hamidani, director, Media Care Brand Solutions. “It makes it much harder to use influence alone to sell financial products or create unrealistic expectations, which is a positive step for both the industry and consumers,” he adds.
When it comes to celebrity endorsements, industry hands say, Sebi might be pulling in two directions at once. Most advertisements will no longer need approval before they go live, just a report filed within 24 hours of publishing will be enough. Big celebrities are the one exception here; they still need approval before their ads run, so it’s clear Sebi is saving its strictest checks for the faces with the biggest reach. “Sebi seems to be doing two things at once: Making advertising compliance more uniform for regulated financial entities, while sharply limiting the persuasive power of celebrities, large influencers, and even AI avatars in product-level financial promotion. This is partly a crackdown and partly a liberalisation,” says Sonam Bhagat, CEO, Vygr News Network.
The caution makes sense when one looks at how consumer trust has been violated only too often. The Ministry of Finance informed Parliament earlier this year that Sebi had flagged 133,000 misleading or manipulative posts about securities, up to February 2026.
That’s not a handful of bad actors slipping through; that’s a volume problem. A single code with one reporting portal is basically Sebi admitting the old patchwork of rules was never built to catch a problem this big.
Here’s the part that really stands out. Sebi is getting stricter about what an ad can claim, but at the same time, it’s making it easier and faster for most ads to actually go live, since advertisers will just need to file a report within 24 hours after publishing, instead of waiting for the green signal first. This shift to 24-hour post-issuance reporting for most advertisements means content still goes live before scrutiny, a pattern similar to what played out in Sebi’s May 2026 action against seven individuals who manipulated 82 small-cap stocks via Telegram and X before regulators intervened.
Net net, the code sharpens definitions and closes the celebrity loophole, but the reliance on after-the-fact monitoring means it eases the process more than it eliminates the risk of fakery in its entirety.