vc-scanPre-diligence & valuation
← Back to homeFree · no sign-up

Does your promotion page carry what FCA rules require?

Check a live promotion for a restricted mass market investment — equity crowdfunding, a P2P loan, an LTAF unit, a qualifying cryptoasset — against FCA Handbook COBS 4.12A: the prescribed risk warning, the investor-categorisation gate, and the ban on referral/sign-up cash incentives. Every finding names the specific rule and quotes what it requires, so you can check the page yourself. Give us the URL, or paste the page's text if it is built by JavaScript or blocks automated checks. Nothing is stored.

Point it at the right page

COBS 4.12A applies to the promotion itself — usually the page carrying your offer and its invest button, not your homepage. In practice the risk warning sits on the marketing page while the categorisation gate lives behind the invest click, so a homepage will often show a missing gate that is really one step further on. And a corporate or about-us page is not a promotion at all: COBS 4.12A does not apply to it, so a finding there means nothing.

What this does NOT check

This is not the whole of COBS 4.12A. It does not check the 24-hour cooling-off period (a multi-step flow, not something visible on one fetched page) or whether the firm approving the promotion actually holds FCA s.55NA permission — confirm that on the FCA Register yourself. It also cannot see anything rendered only by JavaScript after the page loads, and it cannot judge font size, borders or bold/underline styling — only roughly where the risk-warning text sits on the page.

Informational only, not legal or regulatory advice. Promoting a restricted mass market investment without meeting COBS 4.12A can be a criminal offence under s.21 FSMA 2000 — if this flags anything, have a solicitor or compliance adviser check it before you rely on the result.