Resolution no. 22936

Order, pursuant to article 7-octies, paragraph 1, letter b) of Legislative Decree no. 58/1998 ("Consolidated Law on Finance") to cease the breach of article 18 of the Consolidated Law on Finance carried out via the www.fx-alta.com website and its related pages https://webtrader.fx-alta.com and https://mobtrader.fx-alta.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. potential investors are offered the opportunity through the www.fx-alta.com website – which is active, available in Italian and registered anonymously – to trade in derivatives such as Contracts for Difference (CFDs) on currencies, indices, shares and commodities;

ii. in order to carry out the aforementioned trading, users are required to register and open an account where they can deposit relevant funds; in particular, four types of account are mentioned, called "Standard", "Premium", "Platinum" and "VIP", depending on the minimum deposit required and the benefits offered;

iii. the pages https://webtrader.fx-alta.com and https://mobtrader.fx-alta.com are dedicated respectively to access the reserved area of the website www.fx-alta.com and to the registration of users;

iv. as to the traceability of the transactions in question, on the website there are references to the company "Pangaia Ltd" with purported registered office in the Comoros and to the company called "FXALTA" with purported registered office in Malaysia;

HAVING REGARD to resolution no. 22674 of 19 April 2023, whereby the order was given to the above-mentioned "FxAlta" to cease the breach of article 18 of the Consolidated Law on Finance conducted through the separate website www.fxalta.com;

WHEREAS, in addition to using a domain that is similar to the domain of the aforementioned www.fxalta.com website, the www.fx-alta.com website replicates the content and graphic format of the former website;

WHEREAS the activity carried out via the www.fx-alta.com website and its related pageshttps://webtrader.fx-alta.com and https://mobtrader.fx-alta.com constitutes 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 said domains of opening a trading account where they can place orders to buy and/or sell financial instruments;

WHEREAS the above described activity, carried out via the website www.fx-alta.com and its related pages https://webtrader.fx-alta.com and https://mobtrader.fx-alta.com, is still ongoing and is aimed at Italian investors, given that the aforesaid domains are available in Italian and there have been reports of remote communication made to retail investors in Italy regarding the initiatives promoted via these domains.

WHEREAS the website www.fx-alta.com and its pages https://webtrader.fx- alta.com and https://mobtrader.fx-alta.com 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 to 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 activities 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 provisions of Article 7-octies, letter b) of the Consolidated Law on Finance - "Powers to counteract unauthorised provision of investment services" - pursuant to which 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 that the infringement cease";

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.fx-alta.com and its pages https://webtrader.fx-alta.com and https://mobtrader.fx-alta.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