Resolution no. 21812

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 websitewww.ictrades.co

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 the checks carried out, it emerged that:

i. potential investors are offered the opportunity through the website www.ictrades.co, which is active and registered by an anonymous user, to trade on the forex market and negotiate CFDs through the MetaTrader4 platform;

ii. in order to be able to trade as mentioned above, users must register, open a trading account and deposit relevant funds;

iii. in particular, four types of account are mentioned on the website www.ictrades.co , referred to as "Classic", "Gold", "Platinum" and "Vip", depending on the minimum deposit required and the benefits promised;

iv. the "Terms of business" section of the website www.ictrades.co states the company "Pro Star" with reported registered office in St. Vincent and the Grenadines;

HAVING REGARD to Resolutions no. 20856 of 20 March 2019, no. 21267 of 19 February 2020 and no. 21581 of November 2020, whereby "Pro Star", with alleged registered office in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, was ordered to cease its infringement of article 18 of the Consolidated Law on Finance conducted through the separate websites www.traderia.com, www.goldencfd.com, https://finantik.com and the relevant page https://client.trading-dashboard.com as well as www.golden-cfd.com;

WHEREAS the activity carried out through the www.ictrades.co website can be classed as the provision of investment services as referred to in article 1, paragraph 5, of the Consolidated Law on Finance, as users are offered the possibility through the aforementioned site to open a trading account on which it is possible to issue purchase and/or sale orders relating to financial instruments;

WHEREAS the aforementioned activity, carried out through the aforementioned website, is still ongoing and is aimed at Italian investors, since there have been reports of investment solicitation through remote communication techniques with the public in Italy;

WHEREAS "Pro Star", as mentioned on the website www.ictrades.co, is not authorised to provide investment services to the Italian public, since it is not listed in the register maintained by Consob pursuant to article 20 of the Consolidated Law on Finance;

HAVING REGARD TO the requirement to be appropriately licensed to provide investment services and activities as per article 18, paragraph 1, of the Consolidated Law on Finance, pursuant to which "The commercial provision of investment services and activities to the public is reserved to Stock brokerage 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 art. 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 abusive practices" - CONSOB "may, with regard to anyone who offers or carries out investment services or activities over the Internet without being qualified to do so 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 article 18 of Legislative Decree no. 58/98 carried out through the www.ictrades.co website, consisting in offering investment services and activities to the Italian public.

This Resolution shall be brought to the attention of the concerned parties 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.

22 April 2021

THE CHAIRMAN
Paolo Savona