Resolution no. 21733

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 https://fx24.one 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 website, it emerged that:

i. users are offered the opportunity through the https://fx24.one website - which is active and partially available in Italian - to trade CFDs on currencies;

ii. in order to trade as mentioned above, the user is asked to register with the https://fx24.one website through a registration procedure that is also available to Italian users, log in to their personal area on the same site which is also available in Italian, open an account and spend sums of money;

iii. in particular, three types of account are mentioned on the https://fx24.one website, known as "Base", "Gold" and "Premium", depending on the minimum deposit required and the benefits promised;

iv. as for traceability, in the document called "Customer Agreement" that is available on the https://fx24.one website, it says that the contractual counterparty of a user registering in the aforementioned domain and opening a trading account is Swiss Management Corporation Ltd, with its registered office in the Marshall Islands;

WHEREAS the activity carried out through the https://fx24.one 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 users are offered the opportunity of opening a trading account on which to issue purchase and/or sale orders relating to financial instruments;

WHEREAS the transactions described above, carried out through the https://fx24.one website, are still ongoing and are aimed at Italian investors, since the personal area of the aforesaid site, which the user can access after registering, is also available in Italian, and moreover, there have been reports for the https://fx24.one site of cold calling retail investors in Italy;

WHEREAS Swiss Management Corporation Ltd, with its registered office in the Marshall Islands, which is mentioned on the https://fx24.one website, is not authorised to engage in the provision of investment services and activities to the Italian public, since 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 art. 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 unauthorised activity" - 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;

R E S O L V E S:

To order the cessation of the infringement of article 18 of Legislative Decree no. 58/98 carried out through the https://fx24.one website, consisting in the offering and provision of 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.

25 February 2021

THE CHAIRMAN
Paolo Savona