Resolution no. 22521

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://fintegral.fund

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://fintegral.fund, which is active, registered anonymously and available in Italian, offers potential investors the opportunity to trade CFDs on currencies, indices, shares and bonds;

ii. in order to place such trades, users must register with the website https://fintegral.fund – through a procedure that is also available for Italian users – open an account and deposit relevant funds;

iii. in particular, four types of account are listed on the website https://fintegral.fund, referred to as ”Mini”, “Standard”, “Classic” and “VIP”, depending on the minimum deposit required and the benefits promised;

iv. as regards traceability, the footer of the website https://fintegral.fund states that “this website is owned and operated by Ethereal Group LLC”, with reported registered offices in Saint Vincent and Grenadines; The site https://fintegral.fund also contains the indication of an e-mail address specifically dedicated to Italian customers (compliance.it@fintegralfund);

WHEREAS the activity carried out through the websitehttps://fintegral.fund is deemed to constitute the provision of investment services pursuant to article 1, paragraph 5, of the Consolidated Law on Finance, given that users are offered the opportunity through said domain to open a tradingaccount and place orders on it to buy and/or sell financial instruments;

WHEREAS such activity, carried out through the website https://fintegral.fund, is still ongoing and aimed at Italian investors, insofar as the website https://fintegral.fund is also available in Italian and the same website provides an e-mail address specifically aimed at Italian customers; In addition, no mechanism was found on the https://fintegral.fund website aimed at preventing registration by users who attempt to subscribe to the said domain from Italy/through Italian IP addresses and complaints have also been received from Italian savers in relation to the initiatives promoted through the https://fintegral.fund website;

WHEREAS Ethereal Group LLC, with its registered address in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, mentioned on the website, is not authorised to provide investment services to the Italian public, insofar as it is not enrolled on the register kept 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 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 unauthorised provision of investment services” - 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 performed through the https://fintegral.fund website, 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.

23 November 2022

THE CHAIRMAN
Paolo Savona