Resolution no. 21252

Order, pursuant to art. 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 through the https://www.marketsfx.it 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 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 https://www.marketsfx.it, it emerged that:

i. the website is active and may also be consulted in Italian;

ii. the website offers the possibility, after registration, of performing trading transactions on CFDs with stocks, commodities, indices, currencies or cryptocurrencies as their underlying assets;

iii. in order to perform trading transactions, a cash investment is required, to be paid into an account opened online. In particular, there are three types of account known as 'Bronze', 'Silver' and 'Gold', depending on the minimum deposit required and the benefits promised;

iv. at the bottom of the pages, in the contractual terms, in the section containing the website's privacy policy, mention is made of the company GAM Group Ltd, with its registered office in Sofia;

v. on the page of the website where the user is required to indicate the payment method there is also a reference to MarketsFX Ltd, with no indication of its registered office.

HAVING REGARD TO Consob Resolutions no. 21103 of 9 October 2019 and no. 21172 of 5 December 2019, whereby the company GAM Group Ltd was ordered to cease the infringement of article 18 of the Consolidated Law on Finance conducted through the https://marketsfx.com and https://marketsfxcap.com websites, respectively;

WHEREAS the activity carried out through the website https://www.marketsfx.it can be classed as the provision of investment services as referred to in article 1, paragraph 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;

WHEREAS the aforementioned operations, performed through the https://www.marketsfx.it website, are still ongoing and are aimed at Italian investors, insofar as the https://www.marketsfx.it website is available in Italian and there have been reports of cold calling Italian customers who are being contacted by telephone by persons operating on behalf of the aforementioned website;

WHEREAS GAM Group Ltd and MarketsFX Ltd mentioned on the website are not authorised to provide investment services to the Italian public, since they do not appear on the dedicated register held by CONSOB pursuant to article 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, paragraph 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 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 art. 7-octies, letter b) 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 over the Internet without being qualified therefore 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 art. 18 of Consolidated Law on Finance performed through the https://www.marketsfx.it website, consisting in 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.

February 5, 2020

THE CHAIRMAN
Paolo Savona