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://orobanc.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 https://orobanc.com website, it emerged that:

i. the website https://orobanc.com, which is active and also available in Italian, offers potential investors the possibility to trade CFDs on currencies, shares, indices and commodities;

ii. in order to be able to trade as mentioned above, users are invited to register with the website https://orobanc.com, access their personal area, open an account and deposit relevant funds;

iii. in particular, four types of account are mentioned on the website https://orobanc.com, named "Base", "Gold", "Platinum" and "Vip", depending on the minimum deposit required and the benefits promised;

iv. regarding traceability, in the "Terms and Conditions" section, it is specified that "These Terms are governed by the laws of the Republic of Marshall Islands" and reference is made to the name "Orobanc" and the mailbox "support@orobanc.com". The "Privacy Policy" section mentions an additional company named Equal Target Ltd.

WHEREAS the activity carried out through the https://orobanc.com website can be classed as the provision of investment services as described in article 1, paragraph 5, of the Consolidated Law on Finance, as users are offered the possibility of opening a trading account on which they can issue purchase and/or sale orders relating to financial instruments;

WHEREAS the aforementioned activity, carried out through the website https://orobanc.com, is still ongoing and is aimed at Italian investors, given that the site is available in Italian, and there have been reports of cold calls being made towards retail investors in Italy;

WHEREAS the company https://orobanc.com cannot be attributed to an entity which is authorised to provide investment services to the Italian public, since the entities "Orobanc" and "Equal Target Ltd" as mentioned on the website https://orobanc.com are not listed on the register maintained by Consob pursuant to article 20 of the Consolidated Law on Finance;

HAVING REGARD TO the requirement to hold a relevant licence to provide investment services and activities as per 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 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 provisions of article 7-octies, letter b) of the Consolidated Law on Finance - "Powers to counteract unauthorised activity"- pursuant to which 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 https://orobanc.com 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 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.

3 June 2021

THE CHAIRMAN
Paolo Savona