Resolution no. 21626

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 https://www.solutionmarkets.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 https://www.solutionmarkets.com, it emerged that:

i. the website is active;

ii. the website offers potential investors the opportunity to trade Forex using the Meta Trader 4 platform and trading CFDs with commodities, shares, indices and cryptocurrencies as their underlying assets;

iii. in order to be able to trade via the https://www.solutionmarkets.com website, registration and opening of an account to deposit the necessary funds in are required. In particular, three types of account are offered, named “Basic”, "Pro” and “Expert”;

iv. as to the https://www.solutionmarkets.com website's traceability, it appears from the indications on the pages of the site itself, to be traceable to Kiqiwk Holdings Intl Limited, a company which states its registered office is at Intershore Chambers, Road Town, Tortola, British Virgin Islands;

WHEREAS the activity carried out through the website https://www.solutionmarkets.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 by "Kiqiwk Holdings Intl Limited" through the websitehttps://www.solutionmarkets.com , is still ongoing and aimed at Italian investors, since there have been reports of cold calling members of the public in Italy and no blocking mechanisms have been identified, as part of registration, to limit or exclude users with an Italian IP address from opening a trading account;

WHEREAS Kiqiwk Holdings Intl Limited is not authorised to provide investment services to the Italian public, since it does not appear 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 to 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 to the public is reserved to Italian Investment firms, EU investment firms, Italian banks, EU banks and non-EU firms”;

HAVING ESTABLISHED, therefore, that the operations in question qualify as the professional provision of investment services to the Italian public, in infringement of article 18, paragraph 1 of the Consolidated Law on Finance;

HAVING REGARD TO the fact that, according to the provisions of article 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. 58/1998 carried out through the https://www.solutionmarkets.com website, consisting in the offering and 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.

10 December 2020

THE CHAIRMAN
Paolo Savona