Resolution no. 23086

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 committed via the www.capital4it.io website and the relative https://panel.capital4it.io 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:

1. potential investors are offered the opportunity through the website www.capital4it.io to trade on "a wide range of markets ... as well as 1200 strumenti su FX, indices, shares, energy and commodities and more";
2. to carry out such trading, users must register on the website through the domain https://panel.capital4it.io, and subsequently open a trading account; In particular, two types of account are proposed ("Razor" and "Standard");
3. after registering, users may access the reserved area of the website, available on the aforementioned domain https://panel.capital4it.io, which contains, among others, a function dedicated to making deposits and where it is possible to access the trading platform;
4. as to traceability, in the website www.capital4it.io, there are generic references to “Capital4it Ltd”.

WHEREAS the activity carried out via the www.capital4it.io website and the its page https://panel.capital4it.io 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 allows users to trade financial instruments;

WHEREAS the aforementioned activity is still ongoing and is aimed at Italian investors, insofar as the website www.capital4it.io is also available in Italian via automatic translation, there have been reports of interaction with Italian investors, and moreover no mechanism was found that blocked registration by users attempting to register on the website from Italy through Italian IP addresses; moreover, online advertising initiatives were also found to have been put in place with undue references to publicly known Italian personalities, aimed at soliciting Italian retail investors to invest;

WHEREAS the www.capital4it.io website and its page https://panel.capital4it.io 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 www.capital4it.io website and the page https://panel.capital4it.io and consisting in offering and providing investment services and activities to the Italian public.

This Resolution shall be disclosed to the public through publication in the Consob Bulletin.

This measure may be appealed before the Regional Administrative Court of Lazio within 60 days of the date of publication.

24 April 2024

THE CHAIRMAN
Paolo Savona