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resolution



Resolution no. 22911

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 via the website https://fxcrue.com and the related webpages https://webtrader.fxcrue.com and https://client.fxcrue.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:

i. the https://fxcrue.com website, which is active and also partially available in Italian, offers potential investors the possibility to trade online on the forex market and on CFDs relating to indices, shares, commodities and digital currencies;

ii. in order to carry out such trading transactions, users are required to register with the website https://fxcrue.com starting from the webpage https://client.fxcrue.com and to open a trading account to be used for making investment transactions by accessing the online trading platform available, also in Italian, on the additional webpagehttps://webtrader.fxcrue.com; in particular, three types of account are available, which are called "Primo Livello", "Pro" and "Extra Pro", depending on the minimum deposit required and the benefits offered;

iii. as to traceability, within the website https://fxcrue.com there are generic references to "FXCrue" - without any indication about its registered office - as well as the indication of the following email addresses "support@fxcrue.com", "docs@fxcrue.com", "call@fxcrue.com" and "finanza@fxcrue.com".

WHEREAS the activity carried out via the website https://fxcrue.com and the webpages https://webtrader.fxcrue.com and https://client.fxcrue.com constitutes the provision of investment services, as referred to in Article 1, paragraph 5, of the Consolidated Law on Finance, since users are offered the opportunity via the aforementioned domains to open a trading account and place orders to buy and/or sell financial instruments;

WHEREAS the above activity is still ongoing and is aimed at Italian investors, since the online trading platform available at the address https://webtrader.fxcrue.com and directly reachable via the website https://fxcrue.com is available also in Italian, and reports of cold calling of Italian customers have been received, along with complaints from Italian investors; In addition, no mechanism was found aimed at blocking registration with the same domains by users who attempt to register from Italy through Italian IP addresses;

WHEREAS the website https://fxcrue.com and the related webpages https://webtrader.fxcrue.com and https://client.fxcrue.com cannot be attributed to any entity authorised to provide investment services to the Italian public, since "FXCrue" mentioned on the website https://fxcrue.com does not appear on the register kept by Consob pursuant to Article 20 of Legislative Decree No. 58/1998 ("Consolidated Law on Finance");

HAVING REGARD TO the requirement to hold a relevant licence to provide investment services and activities as per 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 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 https://fxcrue.com and the related webpages https://webtrader.fxcrue.com and https://client.fxcrue.com, consisting of the offering 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.

29 November 2023

THE CHAIRMAN
Paolo Savona