Resolution no. 20346

Order, pursuant to Article 7-octies, paragraph 1, letter b), of Legislative Decree no. 58/1998 (Consolidated Law on Finance) to discontinue the infringement of Article. 18 of the Consolidated Law on Finance performed via the www.coinoa.com 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 June 7, 1974, and subsequent amendments and additions;

HAVING REGARD TO Legislative Decree no. 58 of February 24, 1998, and subsequent amendments and additions (Consolidated Law on Finance);

HAVING ESTABLISHED that, from checks on www.coinoa.com website, it emerged that:

1. the www.coinoa.com website, registered anonymously by a user whose identity is not known, is also available in Italian;
2. the potential investor, after registering on the said website and opening an account using a specific form available online can trade in Bitcoins and on the FOREX market via dedicated platform;
3. after the registration, the user receives a standardised e-mail in English with, among other things, a set of instructions for using the said platform;
4. in order to carry out trading transactions, an investment of money is required, through the payment of sums into an account to be opened online. In particular, the said website offers various types of account, namely "Bronze", "Silver" and "Gold", which differ mainly in the amount of the minimum deposit required and the benefits;
5. it is not possible to find any reference to subjects in order to the operations carried out though the website in question.

HAVING ESTABLISHED that, according to the information available, people operating in the name of "Coinoa" have telephoned Italian investors in order to persuade them to open an account and carry out tradingtransactions on the said website, and that the said subjects adopt methods of contact and interaction, including immediate ones, with Italian clients, and this also through the said website, which provides procedural and operational instructions for investing in financial instruments;

HAVING CONSIDERED that the above described operations carried out also via the www.coinoa.com website are directed to the Italian public, because the said website is available in Italian and has no blocking mechanism in place to prevent Italian users from registering; in fact, also the reserved area is available in Italian to registered investors;

HAVING ESTABLISHED that the activities carried out via the said website can be classed as the provision of investment services referred to Art. 1, para. 5, of the Consolidated Law on Finance, insofar as clients are offered the opportunity to open a trading account against purchase and/or sale orders for financial instruments can be issued;

HAVING CONSIDERED that the provision of investment services and activities is reserved for authorised entities as referred to Article 18, para. 1 of the Consolidated Law on Finance, pursuant to which “The professional provision of investment services and activities for the public is reserved for investment firms and banks”;

HAVING ESTABLISHED that, as explained above, it is not possible to identify any subject authorised to provide investment services and activities to whom to attribute the operations carried out through the www.coinoa.com website;

HAVING ESTABLISHED that, therefore, the said website cannot be attributed to any subject authorised to provide investment services and activities;

HAVING ESTABLISHED that the operations in question are configured as the professional provision of investment services involving financial instruments to the Italian public in infringement of Art. 18, para. 1, of the Consolidated Law on Finance;

HAVING CONSIDERED that, pursuant to Art. 7-octies 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 therefor pursuant to this decree: a) make public, even by way of a precaution, the circumstance that the party is not authorised to carry out the activity indicated by article 1, paragraph 5; b) order that the infringement cease”;

HEREBY RESOLVES:

The order is issued to discontinue the infringement of Art. 18 of Legislative Decree no. 58/1998 implemented also via the www.coinoa.com website consisting of the provision of investment services and activities to the Italian public.

This Resolution shall be notified to those concerned and published in CONSOB’s Bulletin.

This measure may be appealed with the Regional Administrative Court of Lazio within 60 days from the date of notification.

21 March 2018

THE ACTING CHAIRMAN
Giuseppe Maria Berruti