Resolution no. 21830

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.renaissanceinvestltd.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 audits conducted on the website www.renaissanceinvestltd.com ascertained that:

i. the website www.renaissanceinvestltd.com is active and offers investors the opportunity to trade on multiple currencies pairs and cryptocurrencies, as well as place trades on derivatives having indices, shares and commodities as their underlying;

ii. two sections are accessible, namely "Personal Accounts" and "Managed Accounts". In the first section, customers may trade on their own behalf without investment limits under their own responsibility with a leverage that can vary from 1:1 to a maximum of 1:25. In the "Managed Accounts" section, reference is made to managed accounts that, depending on the amount deposited, would return an average daily profit of 0.2% to 1%;

iii. in order to be able to trade via the website www.renaissanceinvestltd.com, users must register and open an account and deposit the necessary funds;

iv. the website www.renaissanceinvestltd.com makes references to Renaissance Invest LTD, with alleged registered office in Zurich.

WHEREAS the activity carried out through the website www.renaissanceinvestltd.com constitutes 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 and placing buy and/or sell orders on financial instruments;

WHEREAS the above described activity, carried out by Renaissance Invest LTD through the website www.renaissanceinvestltd.com, is still ongoing and aimed at Italian investors, since the site is available in Italian and regarding the same website there have been reports of cold calling of Italian savers;

WHEREAS Renaissance Invest LTD, with alleged registered office in Zurich and as mentioned on the website www.renaissanceinvestltd.com, is not authorised to provide investment services to the Italian public, insofar as it is not listed in the register maintained by Consob pursuant to article 20 of the Consolidated Law on Finance;

HAVING REGARD TO the requirement to hold a relevant licence in order to provide investment services, as per 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 Italian Investment 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 abuse" - Consob "may, with regard to anyone who offers or carries out investment services or activities through the Internet without being qualified pursuant to this decree: […] b) order that the infringement cease";

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. 58/1998 carried out through the website www.renaissanceinvestltd.com, which constitutes the provision of investment services and activities to the Italian public.

This Resolution shall be brought to the attention of the concerned parties and published in the Consob Bulletin.

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

5 May 2021

THE CHAIRMAN
Paolo Savona