FCA avertizează aplicațiile de tranzacționare cu acțiuni împotriva jocurilor

Autoritatea de conduită financiară din Marea Britanie (FCA) a avertizat aplicațiile de tranzacționare cu acțiuni împotriva adăugării de elemente de gamification pe platformele lor, spunând că acestea pot determina utilizatorii să facă investiții cu risc ridicat și să conducă la comportamente asemănătoare jocurilor de noroc.

Autoritatea de reglementare spune că gamification poate „angaja consumatorii în mod pozitiv”, dar a constatat că este folosită în moduri care ar putea induce în eroare consumatorii sau ar putea cauza rezultate slabe.

The warning to review design features such as gamification comes after the FCA surveyed more than 3,000 users across four trading apps. The regulator also included users of a more traditional investment platform as a control. In-depth interviews were also conducted with a sample of 20 users.

The FCA found that points, badges, push notifications and celebratory messages led to users being more likely to invest in products beyond their risk appetite.

Sarah Pritchard, executive director of markets at the FCA, says: “We expect all firms that offer stock trading to consumers to review and, where appropriate, make improvements to their products based on these findings.”

The regulator says 1.15 million new accounts were opened across the four trading app firms in the first four months of 2021, almost double the amount opened with all other retail investment services combined.

The FCA intends to do further research into trading app use and design features, in particular to understand some wider financial vulnerabilities for users of these apps.