Resolution no. 22270

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.wbiinvestltd.io website and the relative https://client.wbiinvestltd.io and https://webtrader.wbiinvestltd.io webpages

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. potential investors are offered the opportunity through the website www.wbiinvestltd.io – which is active, registered anonymously and also available in Italian – to trade CFDs on currencies, shares, cryptocurrencies and commodities through a dedicated trading platform referred to as WebTrader available at the address https://webtrader.wbiinvestltd.io;

ii. in order to place such trades, users must register with the website www.wbiinvestltd.io, via a process that is also available to Italian users, open an account and deposit the relevant funds; specifically, four types of account are offered, known as "Conto di base", "Conto Affare", "Conto Premier" and "Conto Dedicato" ("Basic Account", "Business Account", "Premium Account", "Dedicated Account"), depending on the minimum deposit required and the promised benefits;

iii. after registration, users can log into the reserved area of the website at https://client.wbiinvestltd.io, where it is possible to deposit and withdraw funds on the trading account;

iv. as for the traceability of the site www.wbiinvestltd.io,generic references are made to "WBI Invest" and the "Contacts" page contains a London address, in addition to two email addresses, each dedicated to a specific service;

HAVING REGARD TO Resolution no. 22151 of 22 December 2021, whereby "WBI Invest", with stated registered office in London, was ordered to cease its infringement of article 18 of the Consolidated Law on Finance conducted through the separate website https://wbiinvest.com and the respective page https://client.wbiinvest.com;

WHEREAS, in addition to using a domain that is comparable to the domain of the aforementioned website https://wbiinvest.com, the website www.wbiinvestltd.io replicates the content and graphic format of the said website https://wbiinvest.com;

WHEREAS the activity carried out through the website www.wbiinvestltd.io and the respective pages https://client.wbiinvestltd.io and https://webtrader.wbiinvestltd.io is deemed to constitute 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 place buy and/or sell orders on financial instruments;

WHEREAS the aforementioned activity, carried out through the website www.wbiinvestltd.io and the respective pages https://client.wbiinvestltd.io and https://webtrader.wbiinvestltd.io, is still ongoing and is aimed at Italian investors, insofar as the aforementioned domains are also available in Italian;

WHEREAS "WBI Invest", with its stated registered office in London, as mentioned on the website www.wbiinvestltd.io , 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 authorised 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 website www.wbiinvestltd.io and the respective pages https://client.wbiinvestltd.io and https://webtrader.wbiinvestltd.io, constituted by 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.

16 March 2022

THE CHAIRMAN
Paolo Savona