Finance outbound compliance checker: the rules for your campaign

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Pick where your recipients are, who they are, what you are offering and how you will contact them. See the rules that apply, each with a plain-English line, a link to the primary source and a traffic light. Your choices stay in your browser.

Using the checker

Pick four things: the country or region your recipients are in, the recipient type (a company, a sole trader or partnership, or an individual consumer), what you are doing (selling to a finance firm, a finance firm selling a B2B service, promoting an investment, or contacting owners about selling their business) and the channel (email only, or email with a phone or LinkedIn follow-up). The checker lists every rule it has a source for, each with a one-line summary, a traffic light and a link to the primary text, and says plainly what it does not cover.

This is general information, not legal advice; check with your compliance team or counsel. Rules as of October 2026.

Short answer: Two sets of rules decide a finance outbound campaign. Email marketing and data rules apply to every sender: PECR and UK GDPR, national ePrivacy laws in the EU, CAN-SPAM, CASL, Australia's Spam Act. Financial promotion rules (FSMA s21, FINRA Rule 2210, the SEC Marketing Rule) come in when the email invites someone to invest or offers advisory services, not when it sells software or services to a bank.

The traffic lights

Allowed, with conditions: you may send, if you meet the conditions in the line.
Needs consent or an exemption: you need the recipient's consent, an exemption, or your compliance team's sign-off before the first send.
Don't do it: the campaign as described should not go out.

The result's headline is the strictest light in the list.

Cold B2B email to a company, by market

Selling a B2B product to a finance firm, email only, to a limited company or someone who works at one:

Market	Light	Rule	Primary source
United Kingdom	Allowed, with conditions	PECR reg 22: corporate subscribers	ICO: electronic mail marketing
Germany	Needs consent or an exemption	UWG s7: email advertising	UWG section 7 (English translation)
France	Allowed, with conditions	CNIL and CPCE L34-5: email to professionals	CNIL: prospection par courrier électronique
Another EU country	Depends on the country	National rule, plus GDPR Recital 47 for the data	GDPR (EUR-Lex) plus national law
United States	Allowed, with conditions	CAN-SPAM Act	FTC CAN-SPAM compliance guide
Canada	Needs consent or an exemption	CASL s10(9): implied B2B consent	CASL section 10(9)
Australia	Needs consent or an exemption	Spam Act s16 and Schedule 2: inferred consent	Spam Act 2003 (Cth)

What it covers

UK: PECR regulations 22 and 23, the ICO's guidance on email and phone marketing, UK GDPR Articles 6(1)(f) and 21, FSMA section 21, Financial Promotion Order articles 7, 12, 19 and 49, and COBS 4.2 and 4.8.
EU: GDPR Recital 47 and Article 21, Germany's UWG section 7, and France's CPCE L34-5 as the CNIL explains it.
US: CAN-SPAM, FINRA Rule 2210 and the SEC Marketing Rule.
Canada: CASL sections 6 and 10(9).
Australia: the Spam Act 2003, sections 16 to 18 and Schedule 2.

The detail and the quotes behind each line are in is cold email legal for financial services, when a cold email becomes a financial promotion and FINRA 2210 and the SEC Marketing Rule for prospecting emails.

What it leaves out

The UAE and Singapore. We have not sourced their rules yet, so the checker does not offer them.
Financial promotion rules outside the UK and US. The checker says so in the result instead of guessing.
Phone rules outside the UK and Germany, and whether a LinkedIn message counts as electronic mail.
Your firm's own permissions. Whether you are authorised, a broker-dealer or a registered adviser changes which rules bind you. Your compliance team knows; the checker does not ask.

Frequently asked questions

Why does Germany need consent even for B2B email?

UWG section 7 treats email advertising without the addressee's prior express consent as an unacceptable nuisance, and its email rule does not separate consumers from businesses. The one exception is existing customers whose address came from a sale.

Why does a UK sole trader get a different answer from a limited company?

PECR's consent rule covers individual subscribers, and the ICO says sole traders and some partnerships are treated as individuals. A company or LLP is a corporate subscriber.

When does selling to a bank become a financial promotion?

When the email itself invites the reader to invest or to use an investment service. A fintech emailing a bank about its payments platform is not doing that; keep the copy about the product and the cost, not returns. Section 21 can also apply when a buyer contacts owners about selling their company. The private equity deal sourcing page covers that case.

Does the checker store or send what I pick?

No. The rules are built into the page and run in your browser. Nothing you pick is sent anywhere.

Want to know whether your campaign is plain B2B or a financial promotion? Read the financial services hub, or book 30 minutes and I will tell you if it is one we should not run.

ROI Maximizer is a trading name of M Ventures LTD, registered in England and Wales, company no. 15554493. Registered office: 4 Beau Street, Bath BA1 1QY, United Kingdom. moe@roimaxi.com