Resolution no. 22732

Order, pursuant to article 7-octies, paragraph 1, letter b) of Legislative Decree no. 58/1998 ("Consolidated Law on Finance") to cease infringement of article 18 of the Consolidated Law on Finance committed via the website www.fuslonfx24.com and its page https://my.fuslonfx24.com

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:

1. the website fuslonfx24.com - which is active and available in Italian through automatic translation systems - offers potential investors the possibility to trade CFDs on currencies, futures, indices, shares and commodities via a trading platform;
2. in order to place such trades, users must register with the website fuslonfx24.com through a procedure that is also available for Italian users, and subsequently open a trading account and deposit the necessary funds. After registration on the website www.fuslonfx24.com, customers may log into the reserved area at https://my.fuslonfx24.com, where there is a specific function to deposit funds on the trading account;
3. as to the traceability of the website fuslonfx24.com, there are several generic references in the domain to “FuslonFX”, purportedly based in the United Kingdom, while at the bottom of the pages of the website it is stated that “FuslonFx is a trade name of Top Markets Ltd”', a company “registered” in Hong Kong;

WHEREAS the activity carried out via the www.fuslonfx24.com website and the related https://my.fuslonfx24.com page is to be considered as 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 aforementioned activity, carried out through the website www.fuslonfx24.com and its page https://my.fuslonfx24.com is still ongoing and is aimed at Italian investors, insofar as said website is available in Italian through automatic translation systems and no mechanism was found to block registration by users attempting to register with the website from Italy/through Italian IP addresses. In addition, contact with Italian customers using remote communication techniques was reported and complaints were received from Italian savers who claimed that they were unable to get their money back;

WHEREAS the abovementioned domains cannot be attributed to any party 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”;

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 infringement of article 18 of Legislative Decree no. 58/98 committed via the website www.fuslonfx24.com and its page https://my.fuslonfx24.com, constituted by the offer and provision of 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.

THE CHAIRMAN
Paolo Savona