# Invest safely – FSC campaign

Today, at a specially organized online event, the Financial Supervision Commission (FSC) presented its digital campaign – #invest safely. With it, the Commission builds on the measures already taken so far to warn of fraudulent investment schemes by unlicensed firms, taking a step forward and using the online space to provide basic guidance on how consumers can distinguish legitimate and fraudulent firms.

The participants in the event exclusively got acquainted with the individually developed website of the campaign – https://investsafely.fsc.bg/, presented by the FSC team represented by Ms. Denitsa Kirova – Secretary General of the Financial Supervision Commission, Ms. Neda Muzho – Head of the Department for Supervision of Public Companies, Issuers of Securities and Special Purpose Vehicles and Ms. Anka Kostova – Director of Public Relations and Protocol.

#invest safely starts with a standalone site that combines video and text, news and alerts to users, there is direct access to the list of licensed firms, allows users to identify legitimate investment schemes, but also to identify the signs indicating irregularities.

#invest safely is also deployed on the digital channels YouTube and LinkedIn, and the attractive visual content created by the Commission team will reach a large number of online users and draw their attention to the questions they need to ask themselves or to the situations which might happen to them, taking the step of becoming investors.

The Secretary General of the FSC, Ms. Denitsa Kirova, said that the campaign is implemented not only to educate consumers, but also to meet the expectations of both capital market participants and end users. “We believe that digital finance will continue to evolve and become a standard consumer behaviour. Against the background of the constantly offered innovative opportunities, we should not ignore the risks they carry. That is why the Financial Supervision Commission, as a regulator, must find a balance between guaranteeing the rights of consumers of non-banking products and services and ensuring a good and stable environment for business development,” she added.

Ms. Neda Muzho – Head of the Department for Supervision of Public Companies, Issuers of Securities and Special Purpose Vehicles told about the ideas for creating the video content, each situation in them is the result of direct cases and discoveries of the Commission team.

The #invest safely campaign, Ms. Muzho said, <> “takes us to a new territory, one where fraudsters are actually present, which is why we are expanding our arsenal of measures and actions in the digital field, because we want to give consumers the opportunity to protect themselves, but also to maintain confidence in the investment market and offer a new sustainable future for the savings of our citizens.”

The last year, marked by the Covid-19 pandemic, has given a strong impetus to the digital transformation of the non-banking financial sector. In response, the FSC is using entirely new approaches through additional communication channels to meet the new challenges of its goal of financially literate consumers of financial services. The Secretary General of the Commission, Ms. Denitsa Kirova shared that “with the digital campaign #invest safely, the Financial Supervision Commission shows that it is actively and consistently working to constantly upgrade its communication policy, protect the interests and consumer confidence in non-banking financial services, and hence in the better positioning of Bulgaria on the “investment map of Europe”.

The #invest safely campaign is now live in:

https://investsafely.fsc.bg/

https://investsafely.fsc.bg/invest-safely/ (English version)

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtU52IKTtgEWJU-fRP8Aw5w

https://www.linkedin.com/company/комисия-за-финансов-надзор

“Recognize the Licensed investment firm” Awareness Campaign in partnership with the Financial Supervision Commission

The Bulgarian Association of Licensed Investment Intermediaries (BALII) in partnership with the Financial Supervision Commission (FSC), the Bulgarian Stock Exchange (BSE), the Central Depository (CS) and the Investor Compensation Fund (FCI) reiterate that only licensed investment intermediaries may offer investment services.

Given the actions of the Specialized Prosecutor’s Office and the General Directorate Combating Organized Crime in recent days to detect financial fraud schemes by unlicensed brokers, investment institutions remind citizens that they should always check whether the company that offers them financial services is licensed.

The license can be verified on the website of the Financial Supervision Commission.

The initiative for conducting the awareness campaign “Recognize the licensed investment firm” is also under the auspices of Boyko Atanasov, Chairman of the FSC. “In the Commission’s Development Strategy for the period 2019-2021 we set the main goal of public awareness and fraud prevention as a step of the strategy to achieve these results is to increase the financial literacy of citizens,” said Boyko Atanasov on the occasion of the campaign. The information materials indicate 10 features by which everyone can find out whether a company offering investment services is licensed or not.

The 10 signs for recognizing the licensed investment firm are published on the websites of the FSC and BALII.