OPINIÃO. Quem valida as informações que impactam o investidor na internet?

During many years, those seeking guidance on investments turned to known figures: the bank manager, the advisor, the expert featured in newspapers. Nowadays, many begin their journey elsewhere: the Instagram feed. This is not necessarily bad. Influencers have played and continue to play an important role in democratizing access to financial information.

They simplify finance, bring investments closer to reality and reach audiences with which the traditional market had difficulty communicating. However, there is an important difference between explaining what a CDB is and telling where someone should put their own money. When this boundary starts to be crossed, the conversation moves to a different level.

Money is not a trivial topic. Wrong investment advice can jeopardize years of savings, delay retirement, increase debt or frustrate important family plans. It can affect not only financial health, but also mental wellbeing. Financial influence implies responsibility. And responsibility implies preparation. Numbers help understand the scale of this discussion.

The FInfluence study, conducted by ANBIMA in partnership with Ibpad, identified 904 influencers in the finance sector on social media in the second half of 2025 – a 12.6% increase compared to the previous semester. Together they have 310.7 million followers. In just over five years, this audience has grown by more than 300%. Many people are talking about money – and many people are listening.

In this universe, certification matters for two reasons that need to be distinguished. The first is objective: there are regulated activities that require specific authorization. Knowing a lot about investments or having thousands of followers is not enough to professionally exercise them. For example, stock analysis is a regulated activity by the CVM and carries its own requirements for its exercise.

The second reason is less obvious but equally relevant. Not every finfluencer exercises a regulated activity and not every finance content creator necessarily needs certification. However, anyone presenting themselves as an expert on such a sensitive topic as money should view qualification as a reputational asset. Certification does not automatically transform someone into a good influencer.

It does not attest independence, common sense or communication skills. But it says something important: that person was willing to study, had their knowledge assessed and obtained a credential recognized by the market. In an environment where anyone can open an account on a social network and start talking about investments the next morning, that is not a small thing.

For the influencer, it is differentiation. For a financial institution considering hiring them, it is relevant information. For those on the other side of the screen trying to decide what to do with their own money, it is another element to form their judgment. ANBIMA has been working to make this distinction more visible for some years.

In 2022, our self-regulation established rules for institutions hiring influencers for investment product advertising. Among them, the responsibility to verify if the influencer possesses the necessary certifications or authorizations when the contracted content involves an activity requiring these licenses. The rules also determine greater transparency in commercial relationships, including a clear identification of commercial content.

In 2023, we took another step with Tá na Rede, our manual of best practices for finfluencers. We gathered in one place the main rules applicable to the communication of investment products and services and tried to make something that I consider especially important: translate this tangled regulation into simpler language. We also showed, in a practical way, which qualifications are mandatory or recommended depending on the activity performed by the influencer.

The logic is simple: it is not enough to say that it is important to qualify. It is necessary to help those who produce content understand which qualification makes sense for what they do. Then we decided to also identify the certifications of the influencers that appeared in our main rankings. Last year, we started doing this for all rankings and identified 33 influencers with market finance certifications.

We did not do this to create a ranking of "good" versus "bad". It would be simplistic and wrong. We did it because we believe qualification needs to be visible. Social reputation was built for a long time mainly on audience metrics: followers, reach, views, likes, shares. All this remains relevant. But when the topic is money, perhaps it is time to add another question: what qualifies this person to talk about it?

This question matters to everyone. Amanda Brum is CMO of ANBIMA. The post OPINIÃO. Quem valida as informações que impactam o investidor na internet? appeared first on Brazil Journal.