Resolution no. 22523

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.mfcapitalfx.com website and the relevant https://client.mfcapitalfx.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 24 February 1998 (“Consolidated Law on Finance”) and subsequent amendments and supplements;

HAVING ESTABLISHED that checks on the internet ascertained that:

i. the www.mfcapitalfx.com website, which is active, registered anonymously and also available in Italian, offers potential investors the opportunity, subject to prior opening of an account, to trade CFDs on underlying currencies, shares, commodities and cryptocurrencies via the MT4 platform;

ii. in order to place such trades, users must register with the www.mfcapitalfx.com website, that routes users to the https://client.mfcapitalfx.com webpage to open an account;

iii. after registering, users can access the reserved area of the website where they can make deposits into their account and access the trading platform;

iv. as for traceability, among other things, there are references on the website to MFCapitalFX;

WHEREAS the activity carried out through the www.mfcapitalfx.com website and related https://client.mfcapitalfx.com webpage 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 of opening a trading account on which it is possible to issue orders to buy and or sell financial instruments;

WHEREAS the aforementioned activity, carried out through the www.mfcapitalfx.com website and related https://client.mfcapitalfx.com webpage, is still ongoing and is aimed at Italian investors, insofar as said domains may also be consulted in Italian and no mechanism was found to block registration by users attempting to register with the https://mfcapitalfx.com website from Italy/Italian IP addresses; moreover, capital losses have been reported by Italian retail investors;

WHEREAS the company MFCapitalFX mentioned on the www.mfcapitalfx.com website is not authorised to provide investment services to the Italian public, insofar as it is not listed in 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 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 article 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 pursuant to this decree: […] b) order that the infringement cease”;

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 www.mfcapitalfx.com website and related https://client.mfcapitalfx.com webpage, 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 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.

23 November 2022

THE CHAIRMAN
Paolo Savona