Resolution no. 22111

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.renaissanceinvestltd.net

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.renaissanceinvestltd.net, it emerged that:

i. the www.renaissanceinvestltd.net website is active, available in Italian and offers the opportunity to negotiate "Contracts for difference"; in this regard, the website reads "Financial products offered by the company include Contracts for Difference ("CFDs") and other complex products";

ii. there are two sections that can be accessed, "Personal Accounts" and "Managed Accounts" respectively; in the first section, clients may trade on their own behalf without investment limits, under their own responsibility, with a leverage that can vary from 1:1 to a maximum of 1:25; in the "Managed Accounts" section, reference is made to managed accounts that, depending on the amount deposited, allegedly allow an average daily profit to be obtained of 0.2 % to 1 %;

iii. in order to be able to trade via the website www.renaissanceinvestltd.net, users must register and open an account and deposit the necessary funds;

iv. with regard to ownership, the www.renaissanceinvestltd.net website makes references to Renaissance Invest LTD, with its alleged registered office in Zurich;

HAVING REGARD to Resolutions no. 21830 of 5 May 2021 and no. 22013 of 22 September 2021, whereby the above Renaissance Invest LTD, with alleged registered office in Zurich, was ordered to cease its infringement of article 18 of the Consolidated Law on Finance conducted through the separate www.renaissanceinvestltd.com and www.renaissanceinvestltd.co websites respectively;

WHEREAS the activity carried out through the website www.renaissanceinvestltd.net constitutes 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 and placing buy and/or sell orders on financial instruments;

WHEREAS the above activity, carried out by Renaissance Invest LTD through the www.renaissanceinvestltd.net website is still ongoing and is also aimed at Italian investors, given that the aforesaid website is also available in Italian;

WHEREAS Renaissance Invest LTD, with its alleged registered office in Zurich, which is mentioned on the website, is not authorised to provide investment services to the Italian public, insofar as 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 hold a relevant licence in order to provide investment services, 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 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 www.renaissanceinvestltd.net website, which constitutes the 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.

9 December 2021

THE CHAIRMAN
Paolo Savona