Resolution no. 22001

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 www.capital-swiss.com website and relative https://clientarea.capital-swiss.com page

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, it emerged that:

i. the www.capital-swiss.com website offers potential investors the opportunity to place orders on the forex market and trade CFDs through the Metatrader5 platform;

ii. in order to trade, registration with the site is required via an online process and opening of one of the accounts advertised; more specifically, four types of account are available, known as "Classic", "Gold", "Platinum" and "VIP", depending on the minimum deposit required and the benefits promised;

iii. after registering, users may access the reserved area of the site, which is also available in Italian at the address https://clientarea.capital-swiss.com, which contains a range of features including specific functions for withdrawing and depositing funds from and into the trading account;

iv. as to the website’s traceability, the contractual terms indicate the company "DevTech Holding" with alleged offices in London and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines;

HAVING REGARD TO Consob Resolutions no. 21323 of 7 April 2020 and no. 21429 of 2 July 2020, whereby the company "DevTech Holding"was ordered to cease the infringement of Article 18 of the Consolidated Law on Finance conducted through the separate www.fincogb.com and https://swissglobalpro.com websites, respectively;

WHEREAS activity carried out through the website www.capital-swiss.com and the relevant page https://webtrader.preminvtradplatform.com can be classed as the provision of investment services as per article 1, paragraph 5, of the Consolidated Law on Finance, insofar as clients are offered the opportunity of opening a trading account and placing buy and/or sell orders on financial instruments;

WHEREAS the aforementioned activity, carried out through the www.nata- trade.com website and the relevant https://clientarea.capital-swiss.com webpage, is still ongoing and is aimed at Italian investors, insofar as there have been reports of cold calls made to retail investors in Italy and moreover the reserved area of the website, where there are several features available relating to the trading account, is available in Italian;

WHEREAS the company "DevTech Holding" mentioned on the www.capital-swiss.com website, is not authorised to provide investment services to the Italian public, insofar as it is not listed on the register kept 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 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 website www.capital-swiss.com and the relevant page https://clientarea.capital-swiss.com, consisting of the offering and provision of 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.

15 September 2021

THE CHAIRMAN
Paolo Savona