Resolution no. 22670

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://fxtime.io website and relevant https://client.fxtime.io and https://webtrader.fxtime.io webpages

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://fxtime.io - which is active and also available in Italian - offers potential investors the possibility to trade shares, indices, currency contracts, digital currencies and commodities via a trading platform;

ii. in order to place such trades, users must register with the website https://fxtime.io through a procedure that is also available for Italian users, and subsequently open a trading account and deposit the necessary funds. In this regard, the website offers three types of account ("Basic", "Standard" and "Premium") that vary, among other things, according to the minimum deposit required. After registering, users can access the reserved area of the website at https://client.fxtime.io, where they can make deposits on the account and access the so-called "Dashboard" section, which contains a link named "Access" that redirects users to the trading platform at the address https://webtrader.fxtime.io;

iii. with regard to the traceability of the website https://fxtime.io, the domain makes generic reference to "FXTime" without any indication of the company's registered office;

WHEREAS the activity carried out through the website https://fxtime.io and relevant webpages https://client.fxtime.io and https://webtrader.fxtime.io constitutes the provision of investment services, as referred to in article 1, paragraph 5, of the Consolidated Law on Finance, given that the above domains offer users the possibility of opening a trading account on which to place buy and/or sell orders on financial instruments;

WHEREAS the above activity, carried out through the website https://fxtime.io and the respective webpages https://client.fxtime.io and https://webtrader.fxtime.io, is still ongoing and is aimed at Italian investors, insofar as the above domains are available in Italian, no mechanism has been found to block registration by users attempting to register with said website from Italy/through Italian IP addresses, reports of cold calling of Italian customers have been received, and complaints have been received from Italian retail investors;

WHEREAS the website https://fxtime.io and relative webpages https://client.fxtime.io and https://webtrader.fxtime.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 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 carried out through the website https://fxtime.io and relevant webpages https://client.fxtime.io and https://webtrader.fxtime.io, 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.

12 April 2023

THE CHAIRMAN
Paolo Savona