“There are apps which are coming out and reaching out to people saying … your money will fetch you this much, many of whom are ponzi apps, on which we are working with the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (Meity) and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), clamping down on them like never before. (We can’t allow) those ponzi apps taking away peoples’ hard earned money,” she said at an event organised by Thinkers Forum Karnataka in Bengaluru.

The minister stressed that one must exercise caution while following the advices of financial influencers.
“At this stage, I am not having any proposal before me to regulate them but yes, a word of caution is important. If there are three or four people giving us objective advice, there are seven others out of 10 who’re probably driven by some other considerations,” she said.

Social influencers and financial influencers are all out there but a very strong sense of caution is required in each one of us to make sure we do double checking, counter checking, talking with people, don’t go as a flock into something and protect our hard-earned money, the minister further said.

Her comments come at a time when at least some social influencers have come under scrutiny for their collaborations with various brands and pushing their products to their followers.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) is reported to be working on guidelines to regulate financial influencers that provide advice on social media platforms.

Meanwhile, responding to a question, the finance minister said that a global consensus is needed for regulation of cryptocurrencies.

“No one country individually in a matter of technology driven crypto asset can effectively control it. Technology has no borders. The very character of it being technology driven, requires all countries to be on board. It will not be effective.The understanding in G-20 along with OECD, IMF, WB is that a global understanding, a global template will have to be created otherwise regulating cryptocurrency may not be effective,” she said.

The minister however, stressed that that does not mean controlling the distributor ledger technology, which has its own strengths and potential. The G-20, of which India has presidency this year, has kept it part of its agenda for this year, she further noted. FE