Resolution no. 22929

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://forexelite.co and its pages https://clientzone.forexelite.co and https://wt.forexelite.co

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) potential investors are offered the opportunity, through the website https://forexelite.co – which is active, available in Italian via automatic translation systems and registered anonymously – to trade contracts on currencies, indices, shares and commodities using a dedicated trading platform;

ii) in order to place trades users must register with the https://forexelite.co website through a process that is also available to users connecting from Italy and open a trading account, by filling in the form available at the address https://clientzone.forexelite.co which can be accessed via the "register" link on this website; in this regard, seven types of account are available on the website ("Basic", "Discovery", "Silver", "Gold", "Premium", "VIP" and "VIP+") that differ, among other things, based on the required minimum deposit. Access to the reserved area is possible through the login form on the page https://wt.forexelite.co;

iii) as to traceability, the contractual terms available on the website https://forexelite.co contain references to "Forexelite Limited", while the "Contacts" page states that "Forexelite is the brandname of Elite Trading Academy Limited", the company that owns the website that manages the "brokerage" services, and contain the email address cs@forexelite.co and an alleged registered and operational office in Dubai;

WHEREAS the activity carried out via the website https://forexelite.co and the pages https://clientzone.forexelite.co and https://wt.forexelite.co constitutes 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 via 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 https://forexelite.co and the pageshttps://clientzone.forexelite.co and https://wt.forexelite.co is still ongoing and is aimed at Italian investors, insofar as said website is available in Italian via 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, there have been reports of Italian investors being contacted and complaints that they were unable to get the invested sums back;

WHEREAS the https://forexelite.co website and the https://clientzone.forexelite.co and https://wt.forexelite.co pages cannot be attributed to any entity authorised to provide investment services to the Italian public;

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://forexelite.co and the pages https://clientzone.forexelite.co and https://wt.forexelite.co, 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 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.

6 December 2023

THE CHAIRMAN
Paolo Savona