Resolution no. 22664

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 www.mtinvesting.io

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:

1. the website mtinvesting.io - which is active and also available in Italian - offers potential investors the possibility to trade contracts on currencies, shares and indices via a trading platform;
2. in order to place such trades, users must register with the website mtinvesting.io, through a process that is also available to users connecting from Italy, open a trading account and deposit relevant funds; specifically, five different types of accounts are advertised on the website, known as "Apprendista", "Intermedio", "Superiore", "Distinto" and "VIP" ("Apprentice", "Intermediate", "Advanced", "Expert", "VIP") which vary, among other things, according to the required deposit. After registering, users can access the reserved area of the website where they can make deposits into their account and access the trading platform;
3. as for the traceability of the website mtinvesting.io, generic reference is made on the website to "MTinvesting" with reported registered address in Canada;

HAVING REGARD TO Resolution no. 22042 of 13 October 2021, whereby "MTinvesting" was ordered to cease its infringement of article 18 of the Consolidated Law on Finance conducted through the separate website www.mtinvesting.com;

WHEREAS, in addition to using a domain that is similar to the domain of the aforementioned site www.mtinvesting.com, the site www.mtinvesting.io replicates the content and graphic format of the former website;

WHEREAS the activity carried out through the website www.mtinvesting.io is deemed to constitute the provision of investment services within the meaning of article 1, paragraph 5, of the Consolidated Law on Finance, given that users are offered the opportunity 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.mtinvesting.io, is still ongoing and is aimed at Italian investors, insofar as said website is available in Italian and no mechanism was found to block registration by users attempting to register with the website from Italy/through Italian IP addresses, and reports have been received of employees of the website www.mtinvesting.io contacting Italian savers;

WHEREAS the website www.mtinvesting.io cannot be attributed to any entity authorised to provide investment services to the Italian public;

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 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 carried out through the  www.mtinvesting.iowebsite, consisting in 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.

5 April 2023

THE CHAIRMAN
Paolo Savona