Resolution no. 20988

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 Art. 18 of the Consolidated Law on Finance performed via the website www.genese-am.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 website www.genese-am.com, it emerged that:

i. the website www.genese-am.com is also available in Italian;

ii. the potential investor, after registering to the website, is offered the opportunity to invest in financial instruments such as, among others, CFD on currencies and ETFs on shares;

iii. 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 to be made and the promised benefits, ‘Standard’, ‘VIP’ and ‘Legend’;

iv. the potential investor is also offered the service of management of portfolios in financial instruments, and offered advice from operators with the possibility to take advantage of "personalised recommendations";

v. the footers of the website pages indicate the company Genese Am Ltd, with headquarters in London;

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 making purchase and/or sales orders for financial instruments, the opportunity to make use of the portfolio management service as well as the investment consultancy service.

HAVING CONSIDERED that the aforementioned operations performed via the website www.genese-am.com are still ongoing and are directed towards Italian investors, insofar as the website is also available in Italian;

HAVING CONSIDERED that the company mentioned on this website is not authorised to provide investment services to the Italian public, insofar as it is not registered on the dedicated 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, therefore, that the operations in question qualify 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, as provided for by art. 7-octies of the Consolidated Law on Finance - entitled"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”.

CONSIDERING it therefore necessary, in the light of the foregoing, to adopt this resolution immediately for reasons of urgency;

HEREBY RESOLVES:

To cease the infringement of art. 18 of Legislative Decree no. 58/1998 also performed website www.genese-am.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.

July 3, 2019

THE CHAIRMAN
Paolo Savona