Resolution no. 22711

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.fintechmarket.consulting and the respective page https://cfd.fintechmarket.consulting

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, as subsequently amended and supplemented;

HAVING REGARD to Legislative Decree no. 58 of 24 February 1998 (“Consolidated Law on Finance”), as subsequently amended and supplemented;

HAVING ESTABLISHED that, from checks on the web, it emerged that:

• the website fintechmarket.consulting - which is active and also available in Italian - offers potential investors the possibility to trade contracts on currencies and cryptocurrencies through a trading platform by “Fintech Market”, defined on the website as a “trustworthy CFD provider”;
• in order to place such trades, users must register with the website at the URL https://cfd.fintechmarket.consulting, through a procedure that is also available for Italian users, and subsequently open a trading account and deposit the necessary funds. Specifically, the website advertises the features of trading accounts with “fixed”, “variable” and “raw” spreads; the same section also makes reference to “VIP Accounts” with a dedicated “account manager”. After registration a dashboard is displayed, available in Italian, where users can among other things access a trading platform available in Italian, where it is possible to trade contracts on currencies and cryptocurrencies;
• >as for the traceability of the website fintechmarket.consulting, generic reference is made to “Fintech Market” with reported registered address in Austria;

HAVING REGARD to resolution no. 22655 of 29 March 2023, whereby the order was given to the above-mentioned “Fintech Market” to cease the infringement of article 18 of the Consolidated Law on Finance conducted through the separate www.fintechmarket.pro website and the relevant https://cfd.fintechmarket.pro web page;

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

WHEREAS the activity carried out through the website www.fintechmarket.consulting and the respective page https://cfd.fintechmarket.consulting is deemed to constitute 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 and place orders to buy and/or sell financial instruments;

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

WHEREAS the above domains cannot be attributed to any entity which is authorised to provide investment services to the Italian public, insofar as the company “Fintech Market” as mentioned on the above website, 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 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”;

CONSIDERING therefore that the operations in question qualify as the professional provision of investment services to the Italian public, in breach 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 to do so pursuant to this decree: […] b) order the cessation of the breach”;

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 www.fintechmarket.consulting and the respective page https://cfd.fintechmarket.consulting, constituted by 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.

24 May 2023

THE CHAIRMAN
Paolo Savona