Resolution no. 23027

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 https://investment-analysts.co website and its https://client.investment-analysts.co page

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 https://investment-analysts.co website to invest "in over 4,000 trading instruments including Forex pairs, CFDs on indices, commodities, shares, ETFs and bonds, or [in] shares or funds traded on the exchange";

ii. to carry out such trading, users must register on the website through the domain https://client.investment-analysts.co, and subsequently open a trading account. In particular, five types of account are offered ("MICR", "Micro", "PRE", "STD" and "VIP");

iii. after registering, users may access the reserved area of the website, available on the aforementioned domain https://client.investment-analysts.co, which contains, among others, a function dedicated to making deposits and where it is possible to access the trading platform;

iv. in terms of traceability, the https://investment-analysts.co website generically refers to "Investment Analysts" and gives contact@investment-analysts.co as their contact email address.

HAVING REGARD TO Resolution no. 22854 of 18 October 2023, whereby "Investment Analysts" was ordered to cease the infringement of Article 18 of the Consolidated Law on Finance conducted through the separate https://investment-analysts.com website and the relevant https://client.investment-analysts.com web page;

WHEREAS the https://investment-analysts.co website has a domain that is partially superimposable on the domain of the https://investment-analysts.com website, as well as similar content and graphic format;

WHEREAS the activity carried out via the https://investment-analysts.co website and its https://client.investment-analysts.co page is deemed to constitute the provision of investment services pursuant to Article 1, paragraph 5, of the Consolidated Law on Finance, given that the above domain offers users the opportunity to trade financial instruments;

WHEREAS the aforementioned activity is still ongoing and is aimed at Italian investors, insofar as the https://investment-analysts.co website is also available in Italian, there have been reports of Italian investors being contacted, and no mechanism has been found to block registration by users attempting to register from Italy, through Italian IP addresses;

WHEREAS the https://investment-analysts.co website and its page https://client.investment-analysts.co may not 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 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 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 the cessation of the infringement";

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. 58/1998, committed via the https://investment-analysts.co website and the page https://client.investment-analysts.co and consisting in 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.

28 February 2024

THE CHAIRMAN
Paolo Savona