Resolution no. 22105

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.newfx.co

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 24th February 1998 ("Consolidated Law on Finance") and subsequent amendments and supplements;

HAVING ESTABLISHED that, from checks on the web, it emerged that:

i. the website www.newfx.co, which is active and registered anonymously, offers potential investors the opportunity to trade CFDs on currencies, indicies, commodities and shares;

ii. in order to place such trades, users must register with the website www.newfx.co, and subsequently open a trading account and deposit the relevant funds;

iii. in particular, the website www.newfx.co advertises seven types of account referred to as "Basic", "Discovery", "Silver", "Gold", "Premium", "VIP" and "VIP+", depending on the minimum deposit required and the benefits offered;

iv. as regards traceability, the bottom of the pages of the site www.newfx.co declares that "NEWFX is the brand name ofBig Horizons Limited", with stated registered address in London, Dubai and New York; the "Terms and Conditions" of said website www.newfx.co make reference to the separate company NewFx Ltd, with no indication of its registered address;

WHEREAS the activity carried out through the website www.newfx.co constitutes the provision of investment services within the meaning of article 1, paragraph 5, of the Consolidated Law on Finance, given that users are offered the opportunity to open a trading account and place buy and/or sell orders on financial instruments;

WHEREAS the aforementioned activity, carried out through the website www.newfx.co, is still ongoing and aimed at Italian investors, since there have been reports of cold calling towards retail investors in Italy regarding said website www.newfx.co;

WHEREAS Big Horizons Limited, with stated registered office in London, Dubai and New York, and NewFx Ltd are not authorised to provide investment services to the Italian public, insofar as they are 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 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 www.newfx.co , 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.

1 December 2021

THE CHAIRMAN
Paolo Savona