Resolution no. 22151

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 via the https://wbiinvest.com website and respective https://client.wbiinvest.com webpage

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 24th February 1998 (“Consolidated Law on Finance”) and subsequent amendments and supplements;

HAVING ESTABLISHED that, from checks on the web, it emerged that:

i. the https://wbiinvest.com website, which is active and available in Italian, offers potential investors the opportunity to trade financial instruments such as CFDs with underlying currencies, indices, shares, cryptocurrencies and commodities via a trading platform known as WebTrader;

ii. in order to place such trades, users must register with the https://wbiinvest.com website, through a procedure that is also available for Italian users, after which they are able to access the reserved area available at https://client.wbiinvest.com;

iii. four types of account are mentioned on the https://wbiinvest.com website, named “Basic account”, “Business account”, “Premier Account” and “Dedicated Account”, depending on the minimum deposit required and the benefits promised;

iv. as far as traceability is concerned, there are generic references, within the https://wbiinvest.com website, to “WBI Invest” with its alleged address in London;

WHEREAS the activity carried out through the https://wbiinvest.com website and the relevant https://client.wbiinvest.comwebpage constitutes the provision of investment services, as referred to in article 1, paragraph 5, of the Consolidated Law on Finance, insofar as users are offered the possibility through the aforementioned domains to open a trading account and issue purchase and/or sale orders for financial instruments;

WHEREAS the above described activity, carried out through the https://wbiinvest.com website and the relevant https://client.wbiinvest.com web page, is still ongoing and aimed at Italian investors, given that the aforesaid domains are available in Italian, and there have also been reports in relation to the https://wbiinvest.com website of cold calls being made to retail investors in Italy;

WHEREAS “WBI Invest”, with its alleged registered office in London, 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 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 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 https://wbiinvest.com website and its https://client.wbiinvest.com page, consisting in offering and providing 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.

22 December 2021

THE CHAIRMAN
Paolo Savona