Resolution no. 22340

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://saxo-fx24.com and the respective webpages https://my.saxo-fx24.com and https://webtrader.saxo-fx24.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 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 website https://saxo-fx24.com - which is active, registered by an anonymous user and available in Italian - offers potential investors the opportunity to trade CFDs on currencies, cryptocurrencies, shares and commodities;

ii. in order to place such trades, users must register with the website https://saxo-fx24.com - by filling in a form available on the page https://my.saxo-fx24.com; at the end of the registration phase, a message is displayed inviting users to contact Customer Support via "phone or email support@saxo-fx24.com"- open an account and deposit the necessary funds;

iii. in particular, four types of account are mentioned on the website https://saxo-fx24.com, referred to as "Standard", "Professionale", "Business" and "Business Plus", depending on the minimum deposit required and the benefits promised;

iv. the homepage of the site https://saxo-fx24.com also contains a hyperlink labelled "Webtrader", which routes the user to the address https://webtrader.saxo-fx24.com, which is the login page for the reserved area of the site for users who are already registered;

v. as for traceability, the site https://saxo-fx24.com contains generic references to "Saxo-FX24" with no indication of the address of a registered office;

WHEREAS the activity carried out through the https://saxo-fx24.com website and relative https://my.saxo-fx24.com and https://webtrader.saxo-fx24.com pagesconstitutes 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 opportunity through the said domains of opening a trading account where they can place orders to buy and/or sell financial instruments;

WHEREAS the aforementioned activity, carried out through the website https://saxo-fx24.com and the respective pages https://my.saxo-stock.com and https://webtrader.saxo-stock.com, is still ongoing and is aimed at Italian investors, since the website https://saxo-fx24.com can also be consulted in Italian and there have also been reports of cold calling towards retail investors in Italy;

WHEREAS "Saxo-FX24" is not authorised to provide investment services to the Italian public, since it does not appear on the dedicated register held by Consob pursuant to art. 20 of the Consolidated Law on Finance;

HAVING REGARD TO the fact that the provision of investment services and activities is reserved for licensed parties as referred to under article 18, paragraph 1, of the Consolidated Law on Finance, pursuant to which

"The commercial 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://saxo-fx24.com website and relevant https://my.saxo-fx24.com and https://webtrader.saxo-fx24.com pages, which constitutes 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.

18 May 2022

THE CHAIRMAN
Paolo Savona