Version: 02/2024
Date of version: 19.02.2024
These Guidelines do not constitute legal advice. This may not not contain most up to date information if there have been recent changes in laws or regulations or best practice, it takes time to incorporate changes in these Guidelines. Please do apply common sense when applying this and reach out to Mintos when in doubt.
What you can find in this document:
In this document, we compiled information about the most important dos and don’ts of advertising content about Mintos and its services and the investment products offered on Mintos.
What is Mintos and where does it operate?
Mintos is a licensed investment firm in the EU which operates the investment platform: www.mintos.com.
Mintos home country is Latvia and through passporting of its services it provides services also to customers in other EAA member states.
Marketing content about Mintos should be targeted at customers in the EEA countries.
These are the general requirements regarding any marketing material:
Information shared with your audience must be fair, clear and not misleading.
→ Consequently, it must not be exaggerated, vague or misleading.
Information should be provided in simple and understandable language.
→ The use of jargon or excessive technical terminology which is difficult for a retail customer to understand should be avoided. However, it should be used when that achieves the precision and clarity of the message.
Facts, quotes, comparisons, arguments, statements, and similar must be true and referenced with reliable data, sources, names, reports, or assessments.
→ The source of the information should be mentioned and duly referenced in the marketing material.
DOs and DON'Ts when creating content about Mintos
DO:
Make it clear to your audience that the content you have published is advertisement or advertising.
DO:
Use disclaimers and warnings. A presentation where you praise the advantages of Mintos products or services without giving a fair and prominent indication of any relevant risks breaches the requirement that information is accurate. Apply common sense when and how to place them in your content. If any regulatory requirements apply, do obey them.
DO:
Discuss the differences between provided investment services and investment products (i.e. explain investments in loans through Notes, and how they differ from investing in loans directly, what Fractional Bonds are, how investments in ETFs happen on Mintos etc.). Also you can discuss topics related to adding funds to Mintos account or withdrawal of funds, functionality of Mintos portfolios, etc.
DON'T:
Provide investment advice. According to MiFID II, investment advice means the provision of personal recommendations to a client, either upon its request or at the initiative of the investment firm, in respect of one or more transactions relating to financial instruments.
When communicating with people personally (by using different communication channels, including private messages) don't advise or solicit to make investments in loans of specific lending companies, countries, bonds, or ETFs or provide opinions or advice about portfolio management (Mintos Core, Conservative, High Yield, Mintos Custom, Mintos Core ETF )or other products.
Private messages’, also refer to a private communication sent or received by a user of a private communication channel on any given platform (e.g., social media platforms; internet forums; instant messaging platforms). Unlike public posts, private messages are only viewable by the participants.
General content you create which is targeted at your audience in general must not qualify as investment advice.
DO:
Suggest or advertise diversification as a good way to minimise risks - by using portfolio settings either automated and predefined by Mintos or custom ones that are defined by investors themselves.
DON'T:
Provide recommendations on which specific loans (i.e. Notes) or other assets should be included in the investor’s portfolio.
DO:
Share objective, factually correct and not misleading information about investments in loans, lending companies or bond issuers, their Mintos Risk Score.
DON'T:
Suggest choosing one specific asset over another or exposure in one lending company over the other.
General disclaimers and disclosures
Content must include the disclosure that the content is an advertisement and the following disclaimer:
“The value of your investment can go up as well as down. You could lose some or all of the invested money.”
In case there is a limitation to characters, a shorter disclaimer can be used (only if the previous statement cannot be used):
“You could lose some or all of the invested money.”
When information on past performance is presented, this information should be preceded by the following statement:
“Past performance does not guarantee future returns.”
The disclaimers can be indicated anywhere in the post or article/video, but in a way that it’s visible to the reader/watcher.
Requirements specific to the EU member states
Spain
Influencers. In Spain, Autocontrol, a self-regulatory body for advertising, has introduced a code of conduct for influencer marketing. These guidelines are voluntary and apply only to influencers who choose to adhere to them, as the official regulatory authority, the CNMV, has not yet endorsed them. Despite this lack of formal recognition, we advise influencers to comply with these guidelines as a best practice for ethical advertising. This includes the clear labeling of sponsored content to maintain transparency with their audience. Following tags are recommended by the code of conduct:
- publicidad (advertising);publi (ad);
- en colaboración con (in collaboration with);
- patrocinado por (sponsored by);
- embajador de [brand] (ambassador of);
- gracias a [brand] (thanks to); or
- regalo de [brand] (gift from).
We strongly advice for Affiliates (Influencers) from Spain to comply with the above mentioned requirement when recommending Mintos products/services.
Germany
Influencers.While the requirement that commercial communication shall be clearly identifiable as such (Sec. 6 (1) No. 1 of the German Telemedia Act) stems from the Electronic Commerce Directive (Directive 2000/31/EC), the detailed requirements on what is meant by “clearly identifiable” are being specified by German case law.
With regard to influencer marketing, for example, case law established that the post on social media must be marked with "advertising" (“Werbung”) or "advertisement" (“Anzeige”) at the beginning of the respective post.
In particular, hashtags such as "#ad", "#sponsoredby" or "#poweredby" are not sufficient if these are placed in a so-called hashtag cloud at the end of the post (decision of the Higher Regional Court of Celle of June 8, 2017, file no. 13 U 53/17).
The same applies to the mere linking of the account names of the companies with "@" or "#" (decision of the Regional Court of Hagen of January 1, 2018, file no. 23 O 45/17).
We strongly advice Affiliates (Influencers) from Germany to comply with the above mentioned requirement when recommending Mintos products/services.
France
Mintos Affiliates must comply with requirements of the General Regulation of the AFM, Article 212-28. (https://www.amf-france.org/en/eli/fr/aai/amf/rg/20230730/notes). Compliance with the said means that when the content is planned to be such that qualifies as a promotional marketing material relating to an offer to the public of Notes(asset backed securities manufactured by Mintos), Affiliates are obliged to submit promotional marketing material to the AFM prior to its dissemination and inform Mintos by email to ([email protected]) whenever such submission has been made as well as inform Mintos by forwarding to the same email any response or requirements communicated with the AFM with respect to the promotional materials.
The use of French language in content is mandatory. This principle is affirmed by the law of August 4, 1994 on the use of the French language.
We strongly advice for all Affiliates (Influencers,media outlets, comparison pages, finance platforms etc.) from France to comply with the above mentioned requirement when recommending Mintos products/services. Influencers. The Influencers Act requires Mintos Affiliates to label their promoted posts with the mention “advertisement” or “commercial collaboration” in a clear, legible and identifiable manner to avoid falling under misleading commercial practices further to Art. L. 121-3 of the French Consumer Code (FCC).
We strongly advice for all Affiliates (Influencers) from France to comply with the above mentioned requirement when recommending Mintos products/services.
Netherlands
Influencers. In the Netherlands, a ban on inducements applies to investment firms. Accordingly, influencers are not allowed to receive commissions based on the number of people who become Mintos clients after being referred to Mintos by these influencers.
The Dutch Advertising Code states that advertising must always be recognisable as such and ‘should not be misleading and not be in conflict with the truth’. In addition, advertising ‘should not be needlessly offensive and should not be in conflict with good taste and decency’.These general rules for advertising are complemented by special advertising codes, which include the Advertising Code for Social Media & Influencer Marketing. Among other things, this Code states that advertising on social media must be clearly recognisable as such and that if a ‘distributor’, in this case an influencer, receives any remuneration in cash or in kind from an advertiser, this must be explicitly stated in the advertisement.
As of 1 July 2022, video uploaders must register with the Dutch Media Authority (Commissariaat voor de Media) and comply with the provisions of the Media Act. The purpose of these rules is to give viewers more clarity about commercial messages in online videos and to protect viewers, particularly minors, from harmful content.
We strongly advice for all Affiliates (Influencers) from Netherlands to comply with the above mentioned requirement when recommending Mintos products/services.