Resolution no. 21736

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 website www.italianoinvest.com

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.italianoinvest.com website, it emerged that:

i. users are offered the opportunity through the www.italianoinvest.com website - which is active and also available in Italian - to trade CFDs on indices, commodities and currencies;

ii. in order to be able to trade as mentioned above, the user is invited to register with the www.italianoinvest.com website, access their personal area, open an account and spend sums of money;

iii. as for traceability, at the bottom of the www.italianoinvest.com site’s web pages there is a generic reference to "Italiano Invest" without any indication of its registered office address;

iv. the "Contacts" section contains a form for requesting information and an e-mail address (info@italianoinvest.com);

WHEREAS the activity carried out through the www.italianoinvest.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, as users are offered the opportunity of opening a trading account from which they can issue purchase and/or sale orders relating to financial instruments;

WHEREAS the aforementioned transactions, executed through the www.italianoinvest.com website, are still ongoing and are aimed at Italian investors, given that the site is available in Italian, and there have been reports of cold calls being made to retail investors in Italy;

WHEREAS "Italiano Invest", which is mentioned within the www.italianoinvest.com website, is not authorised to provide investment services to the Italian public, since it is not listed in 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;

RESOLVES:

To order the cessation of the infringement of article 18 of Legislative Decree no. 58/98 performed through the www.italianoinvest.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.

February 25, 2021

THE CHAIRMAN
Paolo Savona