Resolution no. 21612

Order, pursuant to article 7-octies, paragraph 1, letter b) of Legislative Decree no. 58/1998 ('Consolidated Law on Finance') to cease the infringement of article 18 of the Consolidated Law on Finance carried out through the www.brokermajor-fx.com website

LA COMMISSIONE NAZIONALE PER LE SOCIETÀ E LA BORSA
[THE NATIONAL COMMISSION FOR COMPANIES AND THE STOCK EXCHANGE]

HAVING REGARD TO Law no. 216 of 7 June 1974 and subsequent amendments and supplements;

HAVING REGARD TO Legislative Decree no. 58 of 24 February 1998 ('Consolidated Law on Finance') and subsequent amendments and supplements;

HAVING ESTABLISHED that, from checks on the www.brokermajor-fx.com website, it emerged that:

i. the www.brokermajor-fx.com website offers potential investors the opportunity, subject to registration with the site and opening of an account, to operate on the Forex market and trade CFDs with shares, commodities and indices as their underlying assets through the Sirix Webtrader platform;

ii. in order to be able to trade, payment of a sum of money into an account opened on line is required; specifically, four types of account are offered on the website named"Mini", "Standard", "Gold", and "Platinum", depending on the minimum deposit required and the benefits promised;

iii. as to what and where the site can be traced to, the "Terms and Conditions" section indicates Broker Major Ltd with its registered address in the Marshall Islands;

HAVING REGARD TO Resolution no. 21542 of 15 October 2020, whereby BrokerMajor Ltd, with its registered office in the Marshall Islands, was ordered to cease its infringement of article 18 of the Consolidated Law on Finance conducted through the separate www.brokermajor.com website;

WHEREAS the activity carried out through the www.brokermajor-fx.com website can be classed as the provision of investment services as referred to in article 1, paragraph 5, of the Consolidated Law on Finance, insofar as clients are offered the opportunity of opening a trading account against which purchase and/or sale orders for financial instruments can be issued;

WHEREAS the aforementioned activity, carried out through the www.brokermajor-fx.com website, is still ongoing and is aimed at Italian investors, since there have been reports of cold calling retail investors in Italy;

WHEREAS the company BrokerMajor Ltd, which is mentioned on this website, is not authorised to provide investment services to the Italian public, insofar as it does not appear on the register kept by Consob pursuant to article 20 of the Consolidated Law on Finance;

HAVING REGARD TO the fact that the provision of investment services and activities is reserved to licensed parties as referred to under article 18, paragraph 1, of the Consolidated Law on Finance, pursuant to which, "The professional provision of investment services and activities to the public is reserved to Stock brokerage firms, EU investment firms, Italian banks, EU banks and non-EU firms";

HAVING ESTABLISHED, therefore, that the operations in question qualify as the professional provision of investment services to the Italian public, in infringement of article 18, paragraph 1 of the Consolidated Law on Finance;

HAVING REGARD TO the fact that, according to the provisions of article 7-octies, letter b) of the Consolidated Law on Finance - "Powers to counteract abusive practices" - CONSOB "may, with regard to anyone who offers or carries out investment services or activities over the Internet without being qualified to do so pursuant to this decree: […] b) order the cessation of the infringement";

CONSIDERING it therefore necessary, in the light of the foregoing, to adopt this resolution immediately for reasons of urgency;

RESOLVES:

To order the cessation of the infringement of article 18 of Legislative Decree no. 58/98 carried out through the www.brokermajor-fx.com website, consisting in offering and providing investment services and activities to the Italian public.

This Resolution shall be brought to the attention of those whom it concerns and will be published in the Consob Bulletin.

This measure may be appealed before the Regional Administrative Court of Lazio within 60 days of the date of service.

3 December 2020

THE CHAIRMAN
Paolo Savona