Resolution no. 20980

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 performed through the website https://herdos.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 additions;

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

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

i. the website https://herdos.com, available also in Italian, offers the potential investor, after opening an account via the registration procedure also available for the Italian user, the possibility of trading on the Forex market , trading in cryptocurrencies and CFD;

ii. in order to perform the trading transactions, a investment of money is required, to be paid into an account opened online; there are various types of account offered, named, according to the minimum deposit requested and the benefits offered, ‘Basic’, ‘Bronze’, ‘Silver’, ‘Gold’ and ‘Platinum’;

iii. The "Contact Us" section indicates an "office address" in Macau;

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://herdos.com website are still ongoing and are directed towards Italian investors, insofar as the website is also available in Italian;

HAVING CONSIDERED that it was not possible to trace the above operations to any subject authorised to provide investment services to the Italian public;

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 CONSIDERED 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 performs investment services or activities through the Internet without due authorisation pursuant to this decree: a) make public, even by way of a precaution, the fact that the party is not authorised to perform the activity indicated in article 1, paragraph 5; b) order the party to cease the infringement';

HAVING CONSIDERED, therefore, that it is necessary to immediately adopt this resolution as, in light of the above findings and consideration, there are justified reasons of urgency;

HEREBY RESOLVES:

To order the cessation of the infringement of art. 18 of Legislative Decree no. 58/1998 also performed via the website https://herdos.com, consisting of the provision of investment services and activities to the Italian public.

This Resolution shall be brought to the attention of those whom it concerns and will be 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.

June 26, 2019

THE CHAIRMAN
Paolo Savona