Resolution no. 20818

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 through the https://it.firstbtcfx.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 (‘Consolidated Law on Finance’) and subsequent amendments and additions;

HAVING ESTABLISHED that, from checks on the https://firstbtcfx.com website, it emerged that:

i. The https://it.firstbtcfx.com website, registered anonymously, is also available in Italian and has no mechanism in place to prevent registration of Italian users;

ii. subject to prior registration to the website and opening an account through a registration procedure that is also available to Italian users, potential investors are offered the opportunity to trade online via the Metatratder 4 platform;

iii. in order to perform the trading transactions, an investment of money is required, to be paid into the account opened online; in particular, there are various types of account available, named ‘Basic’, ‘Gold’ and ‘Premium’ according to the minimum deposit to be made and the promised benefits;

iv. in the footer of several pages of the said website, the website is attributed to ‘First Global (UK) Limited’, with declared offices in the UK, which claims to have been authorised to operate by the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA);

v. the FCA, on the page relating to First Global (UK) Limited, has made known that a company of the same name exists which has not been authorised by it, and invites the public of investors to contact the authorised company only at the addresses displayed on that FCA website page (+ 4402071291312, uk@fglobal.com), which differ from those reported on the https://it.firstbtcfx.com website (+442036082415, support@firstbtcfx.com);

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

HAVING CONSIDERED that the aforementioned operations performed via the https://it.firstbtcfx.com website are directed towards Italian investors, insofar as the said website is also available in Italian;

HAVING CONSIDERED that, in the light of that reported above from the FCA website, the website in question is not attributable to the company mentioned in it as authorised by the FCA;

HAVING CONSIDERED therefore, that the operations carried out through the

https://it.firstbtcfx.com website are not attributable to a company recorded in the register held by CONSOB pursuant to Art. 20 of the Consolidated Law on Finance;

HAVING REGARD TO the fact that the provision of investment services and activities is reserved for authorised entities as referred to under Art. 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 the operations in question can be classed 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 REGARD TO the fact that, according 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 therefore 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 performed via the https://it.firstbtcfx.com website, consisting of the offer and 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 before the Regional Administrative Court of Lazio within 60 days of the date of service.

February 14, 2019

THE ACTING CHAIRMAN
Giuseppe Maria Berruti