Resolution no. 22021

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 https://vestlefx.com and the respective page https://client.vestlefx.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 web, it emerged that:

i. the https://vestlefx.com website, which is active and also available in Italian, offers potential investors the opportunity to trade CFDs with indices, shares, bonds, commodities, currencies and cryptocurrencies by means of a dedicated trading platform;

ii. in order to place such transactions, users must register with the website https://vestlefx.com, through a procedure that is also available for Italian users, and open a trading account and deposit relevant funds;

iii. on completion of the registration procedure, access is granted to the reserved area of the website https://client.vestlefx.com, which contains a range of functionalities, including the use of the trading platform;

iv. there are four types of account mentioned on the https://vestlefx.com website, referred to as "Silver", "Gold", "Diamond" and "Vip", depending on the minimum deposit required and the benefits promised;

v. the site contains generic references to "Vestlefx" without any indication of a legal form, while the contact us section contains an address in Cyprus;

WHEREAS the activity carried out through the https://vestlefx.com website and the relevant page https://client.vestlefx.comconstitutes 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 possibility through the aforementioned domains to open a trading account and place buy and/or sale orders on financial instruments;

WHEREAS the aforementioned activity, carried out through the website https://vestlefx.com and the relevant page https://client.vestlefx.com, is still ongoing and is aimed at Italian investors, since the website is available in Italian;

WHEREAS such activity cannot be attributed to any entity that is authorised to provide investment services to the Italian public on a commercial basis. Specifically, "VestleFX" is not listed on the list maintained by Consob pursuant to article 20 of the Consolidated Law on Finance;

HAVING REGARD TO the requirement to hold a relevant authorisation to provide investment services and activities 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 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 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 website https://vestlefx.com and the relevant page https://client.vestlefx.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 of the date of service.

29 September 2021

THE CHAIRMAN
Paolo Savona