Resolution no. 22458

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 https://www.xtbinvesting.io website and its respective https://client.xtbinvesting.io 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://www.xtbinvesting.io website, which is active and also available as an Italian version, offers potential investors the opportunity, among other things, to operate on the forex market and trade CFDs on underlying assets such as shares, indices, currencies and commodities;

ii. in order to place such trades, users must register with the https://www.xtbinvesting.io website by opening an account and depositing the necessary funds; specifically, three types of account are advertised, known as "Smart Investor", "Expert Trader" and "Finance Guru", depending on the minimum deposit required and the benefits promised;

iii. on completion of the registration procedure, access is granted to the reserved area of the website, available at the address https://client.xtbinvesting.io, which contains a range of dedicated functionalities, including the possibility to deposit and withdraw funds on the trading account;

iv. as to traceability, in the "Terms and Conditions" section of the https://www.xtbinvesting.io website there are generic references to "XTBInvesting", without any indication of its registered office; the website also provides an email address, support@xtbinvesting.com;

HAVING REGARD TO Consob Resolution no. 22294 of 6 April 2022, whereby an order was issued to cease the infringement of article 18 of the Consolidated Law on Finance conducted through the https://www.xtbinvesting.com website and its relative https://client.xtbinvesting.io webpage;

WHEREAS the activity carried out through the https://www.xtbinvesting.io website and its respective https://client.xtbinvesting.iowebpage – whose domains are partially superimposable on those of the aforementioned https://www.xtbinvesting.com and https://client.xtbinvesting.com–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 opportunity through the aforementioned domains to open a trading account on which it is possible to issue buy and/or sell orders for financial instruments;

WHEREAS the aforementioned activity is still ongoing and is aimed at Italian investors, insofar as the internet domains in question are also available in Italian and, moreover, no mechanism was found to block registration by users attempting to register on the websites from Italy through Italian IP addresses. Moreover, reports have also been received regarding these websites of investment solicitation by cold calling retail investors in Italy, and furthermore complaints have been received from Italian retail investors;

WHEREAS "XTBInvesting", mentioned on the https://www.xtbinvesting.io website, is not authorised to provide investment services to the Italian public, since it is not listed on 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 https://www.xtbinvesting.io website and its respective https://client.xtbinvesting.io webpage, consisting in offering and providing investment services and activities to the Italian public.

This Resolution shall be brought to the attention of the all 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.

21 September 2022

THE CHAIRMAN
Paolo Savona