Resolution no. 21399

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 carried out through the website www.gntfin.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 supplements;

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

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

i. the www.gntfin.com website is active and offers the possibility, after opening of accounts named "Bronze", "Silver", "Gold" and "Platinum", to trade forex, indices, shares and commodities through the SIRIX and Metatrader 4 trading platform;

ii. after registration, the user can access the reserved area where s/he can make deposits and withdrawals from her/his trading account and click on the "Trade Now" link, through which s/he will be redirected to the aforementioned SIRIX platform;

iii. as for the traceability of the site in question, "Gntfin LTD" is mentioned in the "Contact us" section; under the phrase "Get in touch with us", it says "London Office, Bulgaria, Sofia 1700, Sofia region (capital), Sofia Municipality, Lozenets district Yordan Radichkov Str. No. 5B, ap. Store 1"; "Head Quarters, 9 Boulevard du Jardin Exotique, 98000 Monaco"; "Secondary Branch, 10 King William St, London EC4N 7TW, UK";

WHEREAS the activity carried out through the website www.gntfin.com 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 activity, carried out through the website www.gntfin.com, is still ongoing and is aimed at Italian investors, since there have been reports of a large amount of cold calling of members of the public in Italy;

WHEREAS "Gntfin LTD", mentioned on this website, is not authorised to provide investment services to the Italian public, since it does not appear to be enrolled on the register kept 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 licensed parties as referred to under article 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 through the Internet without being qualified pursuant to this decree: […] 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;

RESOLVES:

To order the cessation of the infringement of Article 18 of Legislative Decree no. 58/98 performed through the website www.gntfin.com 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.

June 10, 2020

THE CHAIRMAN
Paolo Savona