Resolution no. 23112

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://bcs-gm.com and the related page https://my.bcs-gm.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:

1. the https://bcs-gm.com website, which is active, registered anonymously and also available in Italian, offers potential investors the possibility to trade forex instruments and CFDs relating to shares and digital currencies;
2. in order to place such trades, users must register with the https://bcs-gm.com website through a procedure that is also available to Italian users and then open a trading account;
3. after registering, users may log into the reserved area of the website, available in Italian on the additional page https://my.bcs-gm.com, where there are specific features, including the one dedicated to depositing money on the trading account;
4. the https://bcs-gm.com website contains generic references to “Bcs-gm” as well as the email address “support@brokercreditservice.com”.

WHEREAS the activity carried out via the website https://bcs-gm.com and the related webpage https://my.bcs-gm.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, carried out via the website https://bcs-gm.com and its page https://my.bcs-gm.com are still ongoing and aimed at Italian investors, given that said website is available in Italian, there have been reports of Italian investors being contacted and the absence of a mechanism to block registration by users attempting to register with the website https://bcs-gm.com from Italy/through Italian IP addresses has been noted;

WHEREAS the https://bcs-gm.com website and its webpage https://my.bcs-gm.com could not 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 through the Internet without being qualified pursuant to this decree: […] b) order that such infringement must 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 https://bcs-gm.com website and its page https://my.bcs-gm.com, 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.

14 May 2024

THE CHAIRMAN
Paolo Savona