Fund manager
The fund on a winning streak
“We want to advertise the fund’s performance, which has been excellent. We need to know which periods to show, with which warnings and where the line into misleading advertising lies.”
Financial Advertising Rules in Spain (CNMV Circular 2/2020 and Crypto) for Investment Products and Services
Every campaign, every landing page and every story counts as advertising: we help you comply with CNMV Circular 2/2020—balanced messages, rules for past performance, an internal register—and the special regime of Circular 1/2022 for crypto-assets.
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Send us a campaign, a landing page or your approval workflow and we will send you back a clear diagnosis of the risks.
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Services
Financial advertising without surprises: what we cover
From the approval workflow to the crypto chapter: six pieces so marketing can sell and compliance can sleep at night.
Internal control
Your firm’s advertising workflow
We design your complete system: a marketing communications policy, prior validation by compliance, an internal register of every piece and agency contracts that pass on the regulatory obligations. Marketing keeps its speed; you keep control.
Learn more →
Circular 2/2020RegisterPrior validationAgencies
Crypto
Crypto-asset advertising
CNMV Circular 1/2022 subjects crypto advertising to its own rules: risk warnings, a broad scope that includes promoters and stricter control of campaigns. With MiCA in force, the whole perimeter needs to be reviewed.
Learn more →
Circular 1/2022MiCAWarningsCampaigns
Digital
Finfluencers and creators
In June 2026 the CNMV published guidance on finfluencers. If you pay creators, their content is your advertising.
Learn more →
2026 guidanceSocial media
MAR
Investment recommendations
When content gives opinions on specific securities it can trigger MAR Art. 20: transparency and conflicts, on social media too.
Learn more →
MAR Art. 20596/2014
Risk
When a campaign proves costly
Non-compliant advertising ends in requests to cease or correct it and can escalate to sanction proceedings. Prevention is better.
Learn more →
Cease orderProceedings
Product
Product governance
Advertising must respect the target market defined for each product: selling outside it is a double breach.
Learn more →
Target marketMiFID II
Profiles
Who brings us their campaigns to review
Four typical clients with the same underlying problem: growing without their advertising turning into their first sanction proceedings.
Neobroker
The growth team that won’t slow down
“We launch new creatives every week on paid media and social media. The growth team can’t wait days for each sign-off: we need an approval workflow that is fast and defensible at the same time.”
Crypto
The platform under Circular 1/2022
“We run client acquisition campaigns with crypto-assets and we are not clear on which pieces require warnings, what role influencers play and what we must be able to prove to the CNMV.”
Marketing
The agency that wants to cover itself
“We produce campaigns for financial firms and every client asks us for something different. We want a standard for warnings, evidence and approvals that works for all of them.”
Where firms go wrong
The three sins of investment advertising
Almost every advertising problem with the CNMV comes down to three patterns. All three can be avoided with a workflow and sound judgment.
Promising up front and warning at the back: benefits in the headline and risks in the small print, a click away or missing altogether. The balance between benefits and risks is not cosmetic: it is the core of Circular 2/2020.
Publishing without a workflow: pieces that go out from marketing or an agency without prior compliance validation or filing. Without an internal register you cannot prove what you said, when or with what approval: exactly what you will be asked for.
Believing social media doesn’t count: stories, videos and paid collaborations with creators are the firm’s advertising, under the same rules. Outsourcing production does not outsource responsibility.
| Requirement | What it means in practice | Common mistake |
|---|---|---|
| Clear and balanced message | Clear, sufficient, objective and not misleading information: risks given a presence equivalent to that of the benefits, in the same piece and with comparable visibility. | A headline with the return in 40-point type and the warning in 8-point type, hidden behind a link or cut off in the mobile format. |
| Past performance | Only with rules: representative periods that are not cherry-picked, an identified source and a warning that past performance does not guarantee future results. | Showing only the product’s best stretch, or presenting simulations and projections as if they were actual results. |
| Register and prior control | Compliance validation before publishing and an internal register of every piece with version, channel, campaign dates and approval, including on social media and with third parties. | Campaigns launched by agencies or affiliates without going through compliance and without records that allow you to reconstruct what was published. |
Sell well. Advertise better.
We review your campaigns and your advertising workflow, adapt the warnings to each channel and leave your internal register ready to show. With a special chapter for crypto-assets and finfluencers. First consultation free of charge.
Frequently asked questions
Financial product advertising: common questions
What advertising does CNMV Circular 2/2020 regulate?
Circular 2/2020 governs advertising activity on investment products and services aimed at investors in Spain, whatever the medium: press, web, apps, social media, email or paid collaborations.
The key is not the format but the function: if the communication promotes an investment product or service, it is advertising and these rules apply.
What does it mean for advertising to be clear, sufficient, objective and not misleading?
These are the four principles of the Circular: clear (understandable for its audience), sufficient (with the information needed to understand the nature of the product), objective (without distorting bias) and not misleading (without creating false expectations or leaving out what is essential).
Its most important practical consequence: balance between benefits and risks. If you highlight the upside, the risks must be just as visible.
Can I advertise past performance?
Yes, but with rules: the data must cover representative periods—not the window that makes you look best—identify their source and come with the warning that past performance does not guarantee future results.
The usual mistake is self-serving selection: showing only the winning stretch, or mixing actual data with simulations without telling them apart. That is exactly the kind of practice the CNMV pursues as misleading.
What is the internal advertising register and why does it matter so much?
It is the organized record of all your advertising activity: each piece with its final version, channel, dissemination dates and evidence of internal validation. Circular 2/2020 requires it and supervisors use it as their way in: it is the first thing you will be asked for.
Without a register you cannot prove what you said or when, and every missing piece becomes a fact that the supervisor will reconstruct for you. With a register, the conversation changes tone.
What does Circular 1/2022 require to advertise crypto-assets?
Circular 1/2022 subjects the advertising of crypto-assets presented as an investment to its own regime: mandatory risk warnings, content that does not downplay the risks and a broad scope that reaches paid promoters. In addition, certain large-scale campaigns must be notified to the CNMV in advance, on the terms set by the Circular itself.
With MiCA now applicable, the analysis is twofold: what you are (CASP, issuer, promoter) and what you advertise. It is worth reviewing the whole perimeter before your next campaign.
Is the firm responsible for advertising with finfluencers?
Yes. When you pay or incentivize a creator to promote your products, that content is your advertising: it must follow the same rules on balance and warnings, be identified as a collaboration and be recorded in your internal register.
In June 2026 the CNMV published guidance on and for finfluencers that draws the lines between advertising, investment recommendations and investment advice. We analyze it on our finfluencers page.
When does content stop being advertising and become an investment recommendation?
When it gives opinions on specific instruments and suggests a strategy (buy, sell, hold) to the public, it can amount to an investment recommendation under Article 20 of MAR (Regulation 596/2014), with its requirements of objectivity and disclosure of conflicts. And if the recommendation is personalized for a client, it becomes investment advice, a reserved activity.
All three categories coexist within the same social media account: the analysis is done piece by piece. More detail in the MAR Regulation.
What happens if my advertising does not comply?
The typical path: a CNMV request to cease or correct the campaign, together with a demand to show the internal workflow that approved it. If the breach is significant or repeated, sanction proceedings may be opened under the Law 6/2023 regime.
Add to that the commercial cost of pulling live campaigns. The details of the regime are in CNMV sanctions.
Operational guide
Build an advertising workflow that holds up under review
Three phases and ten steps to move from creative chaos to a system: speed for marketing, evidence for compliance.
Policy and workflow
A short, workable marketing communications policy: what counts as advertising, who validates it, how quickly and with what criteria. Set the warnings standard by product and by channel before discussing creatives.
Execution with evidence
Fast prior validation, an internal register of every piece and contracts with agencies, affiliates and creators that pass on the obligations and allow content to be taken down. What is published can be reconstructed; what is not recorded does not exist.
Monitoring and response
Monitoring of live campaigns, expiry and withdrawal of pieces, periodic review of the workflow and a protocol for requests to cease or correct: respond quickly and with the records in hand.
Compliant advertising in 10 steps
- Channel inventory: map everything your brand publishes: web, apps, paid media, social media, email, affiliates, events and collaborations with creators.
- Marketing communications policy: approve a short document with definitions, responsibilities, criteria and the approval flow; short enough for marketing to keep in mind.
- Prior validation: no piece goes out without a compliance review; agree short response times so that nobody bypasses the workflow.
- Warnings standard: templates by product and by format (display, video, stories, audio) that make the risk genuinely visible in every medium.
- Performance rules: set the periods, sources and warnings for using past performance; ban simulations presented as results.
- Internal register: file every piece with its final version, channel, dates and approval; include dated screenshots of what was actually published.
- Third-party contracts: agencies, affiliates and finfluencers with regulatory obligations in writing, a right of prior review and immediate takedown.
- Crypto chapter: if you advertise crypto-assets, apply Circular 1/2022: warnings, stricter control and prior notification where applicable.
- Expiry and withdrawal: give every piece an end date and check that it is actually withdrawn; zombie ads with outdated data are a classic in supervisory requests.
- Periodic review: audit the workflow at least once a year and after every incident: new supervisory guidance, new channels, new products.
Want us to set it up with you? Start with our financial compliance service and, if you work with content creators, with our finfluencers page.
Working glossary
Quick glossary of financial advertising
Nine terms that separate a defensible campaign from a request from the supervisor. Share them with your marketing team: they are as much theirs as yours.
Marketing communicationConcept
Everything that promotes
Any message aimed at getting people to take up an investment product or service, whatever the medium and whoever disseminates it.
Function rules, not format.
Circular 2/2020Rule
The general CNMV rule
The framework for advertising investment products and services: principles, balanced messaging, performance data and internal control.
It also applies to your social media.
Circular 1/2022Rule
The crypto regime
Specific rules for advertising crypto-assets as an investment: warnings, reach to promoters and campaign control.
It coexists with MiCA: review both levels.
BalancePrinciple
Risk as visible as benefit
The requirement that risks have presence and prominence comparable to the advantages in the same advertising piece.
Assessed format by format, including on mobile.
Past performanceSensitive data
The bait, with conditions
The use of historical results in advertising: representative periods, an identified source and a warning that future results are not guaranteed.
Picking only the best stretch is deception, not marketing.
Internal registerEvidence
Your advertising archive
A repository of every piece with versions, channels, dates and approvals. It is the first thing the supervisor reviews.
If it is not in the register, for the CNMV it does not exist.
Prior internal controlProcess
Compliance before publishing
Validation of every piece by the compliance function before it is disseminated, with written criteria and traceability.
Agree short turnaround times or marketing will route around it.
Investment recommendationMAR
When content gives an opinion
A communication to the public that suggests a strategy on specific instruments; it triggers Article 20 of MAR and its transparency rules.
A key boundary for analysts and finfluencers.
FinfluencerDigital
The creator who moves money
A financial content creator whose output can be advertising, a recommendation or advice, depending on what they say and how they are paid.
CNMV guidance of June 2026: read it before you sign one up.
Channel playbook
What each advertising channel requires and what evidence to keep
Website and landing pages
Benefit-risk balance in the same view, sufficient product information and consistency with the contractual documentation.
Versioning of each landing page, dated screenshots and compliance validation before every significant change.
Social media and video
Warnings visible in the format itself (not only in the bio or the description) and messages that do not become misleading through brevity.
Final creatives by format, media plan, dissemination dates and an archive of the pieces actually published.
Finfluencers and affiliates
Identification of the collaboration, content in line with the firm’s rules and control over what is published in your name.
A contract with regulatory obligations, prior approval of content and a log of posts and takedowns.
Crypto-asset advertising
The Circular 1/2022 regime: mandatory risk warnings, content that does not downplay risks and prior notification where applicable.
Pieces with built-in warnings, a campaign file and evidence of the notifications made to the CNMV.
Email and CRM
Segmented messages consistent with the product’s target market and with the cost information given to the client.
Approved templates, documented segmentation criteria and a log of sends per campaign.
Signs that your advertising is your biggest regulatory risk
Each of these practices comes up again and again in supervisory requests. Fix them before your next campaign.
- Marketing publishes first and asks later: compliance finds out on social media, not through the workflow.
- Nobody could reconstruct today which campaigns were live six months ago, or with which creatives.
- Risk warnings disappear or become unreadable in the mobile format, in stories or in short videos.
- You pay content creators without a contract with regulatory obligations and without prior review of their pieces.
- You advertise crypto-assets without Circular 1/2022 warnings and without a campaign file to show.
Boundaries
Where advertising meets other regimes
The same piece can be advertising, an investment recommendation or a prelude to investment advice; and the same product can fall under MiFID II, MiCA or the future retail investment rules. These four pages map the boundaries that raise the most questions.
Digital
Finfluencers
The CNMV’s June 2026 guidance brings order to paid financial content. What changes for brands and creators.
See the guidance →
CNMVCreators
Market
Market Abuse Regulation (MAR)
Investment recommendations, conflicts and information-based manipulation: where content meets administrative and criminal liability.
See the regulation →
Art. 20Transparency
Crypto
MiCA
The EU crypto-asset framework redefines who can offer what, and how it can be communicated to the public.
See the framework →
CASPsIssuers
Future
Retail Investment Strategy
The RIS, still under negotiation, will tighten marketing aimed at retail investors. See which way the wind is blowing.
See the proposal →
RISUnder negotiation
And keep the consequences in view: poor advertising fuels complaints to the CNMV, attracts regulatory supervision and can end in a sanction. Financial consumer protection almost always starts with an honest ad.
Contact
Book a call
Tell us which products you advertise, on which channels and with which controls, and we will tell you where you are exposed and how to close the gap.
Advertising of investment products and services: Circular 2/2020, internal control and crypto-assets
In Spain, the advertising of investment products and services is governed by CNMV Circular 2/2020, built on four principles—clear, sufficient, objective and not misleading information—and one cross-cutting requirement: balance between the benefits highlighted and the risks disclosed. On top of that general framework comes a special regime for crypto-asset advertising, Circular 1/2022, and a digital environment—social media, content creators, programmatic campaigns—that multiplies the pieces and the points of failure. The good news: with a workflow, sound judgment and a register, compliance is perfectly compatible with selling.
The principles of Circular 2/2020 in practice
Making advertising clear, sufficient, objective and not misleading comes down to design decisions: risks with visibility comparable to the benefits in the same piece, without relegating them to the small print or a second click; enough information to understand the nature of the product; and consistency between what is promised and the contractual documentation. Past performance has its own rules: representative periods (not windows chosen for convenience), an identified source and an express warning that past performance does not guarantee future results. The standard is assessed format by format: what is legible on a website may be invisible in a six-second vertical video, and the supervisor looks at the real medium, not the mock-up.
Internal register and prior control: the part nobody sees
The Circular does not only regulate the message: it requires organization. Each firm must keep an internal register of its advertising—final pieces, channels, dates, approvals—and prior internal control that validates communications before they are disseminated, including those produced by agencies, affiliates or hired creators. In practice, this is where most firms fail: the message may be flawless, but if you cannot reconstruct what you published, when and with what validation, the conversation with CNMV supervision starts uphill. Our financial compliance work sets up that workflow so that it runs at marketing speed.
The crypto chapter: Circular 1/2022 and the new MiCA context
The advertising of crypto-assets presented as an investment has its own regime in Circular 1/2022: mandatory risk warnings, content that does not downplay the risks, a broad perimeter that reaches paid promoters and prior notification to the CNMV of certain large-scale campaigns, on the terms set by the Circular itself. The start of application of MiCA adds a prior question: what role you play (CASP, issuer, mere promoter) and what you can legally offer before you even advertise it. For crypto platforms and projects, reviewing both levels together (license and advertising) avoids building campaigns around services that cannot be provided.
Social media, finfluencers and the boundary with investment recommendations
Digital is the most slippery ground. When a firm pays or incentivizes a creator, that content is the firm’s advertising and inherits all its rules; the guidance the CNMV published in June 2026 on finfluencers also defines when a post becomes an investment recommendation under Article 20 of MAR (with its requirements of objectivity and disclosure of conflicts) or even investment advice, a reserved activity. And on the horizon, the Retail Investment Strategy, still under negotiation, points to more demanding retail marketing. If you put your advertising workflow in order today, you will not have to rebuild it tomorrow.
Services
Rules at stake
Official sources
Key legislation, linked to the official text:
- Law 6/2023 of March 17 on Securities Markets and Investment ServicesBOE · consolidated text
Legislation and links reviewed in .