Pubblicazioni

Newsletter


News of the week:
Watch for scams! Financial fraud: Consob blacks out 5 more abusive websites
9 June 2023 - Consob's annual meeting with the financial market at Borsa Italiana
Crowdfunding for businesses, new Consob Regulation adopted
Alternative Financial Dispute Resolution Scheme, regulation adapted to crowdfunding news
Unidata: Consob approves IPO prospectus
AI and market abuse, the attribution of offences must change
Save the date - 19 June 2023 - Seminar “The mapping of financial products from the perspective of investor protection: presentation of Consob Legal Research Paper no. 28”
Investor protection warnings from other regulatory authorities

Commission decisions taken during the week
Management decision

N.B. measures adopted by Consob are published in the electronic Bulletin and, where envisaged, also in the Gazzetta Ufficiale. This newsletter summarises the more important or general measures and their disclosure here is therefore merely to update readers on Commission activities.

- NEWS OF THE WEEK-

Consob has ordered the blackout of 5 new websites that abusively offer financial services/financial products: 4 abusive financial intermediation sites and 1 site through which financial products are offered without a prospectus.

The Authority availed itself of the powers deriving from the "growth decree" (Law no. 58 of 28 June 2019, article 36, paragraph 2-terdecies) regarding the blackout of the sites of abusive financial intermediaries, as well as the power introduced by Law no. 8 of 28 February 2020, article 4, paragraph 3-bis, regarding the blackout of the website through which the abusive offer is made.

Below are the sites Consob has ordered to be blacked out:

- CapitalFxm (website  www.capitalfxm.com and its page https://client.capitalfxm.com);

- Aw Fx Bank (website https://awfxbank.com and its page https://my.awfxbank.com);

- Index Accounting (websites  www.optimainvesting.com, https://fincapindex.com and its page https://client.fincapindex.com);

- Finex Finance Global (website www.finexfinanceglobal.com).

The number of sites blacked out since July 2019, when Consob got the power to order that the websites of fraudulent financial intermediaries be blacked out, has thus risen to 903.

The measures adopted by Consob can be consulted on the website www.consob.it.

The black-out of these websites by internet service providers operating on Italian territory is ongoing. For technical reasons, it can take several days for the black-out to come into effect.

Consob draws investors’ attention to the importance of adopting the greatest diligence in order to make informed investment choices, adopting common sense behaviours, essential to safeguard one’s savings: these include, for websites that offer financial services, checking in advance that the operator with whom you are investing is authorised, and, for offers of financial products, that a prospectus has been published.

To this end, Consob would remind you that there is a section on the homepage of its website www.consob.it entitled "Watch for scams!", providing useful information to warn investors against financially abusive initiatives.

***

Consob has also suspended, for a period of 90 days, pursuant to Article 99, paragraph 1(b) of the Consolidated Law on Finance, the offer to the public residing in Italy of "Investment plans" promoted by Finex Finance Global, including via the website www.finexfinanceglobal.com (resolution no. 22726 of 1 June 2023).

back to index

Consob's customary annual meeting with the financial market will be held on Friday 9 June at 11:00 in Milan, in Palazzo Mezzanotte, the historic headquarters of Borsa Italiana. The event will be streamed from the Commission's website www.consob.it and broadcast live on RAI2.

back to index

Consob adopted - having consulted the Bank of Italy - the Regulation on crowdfunding services for businesses, thus completing, as far as Consob is concerned, the process of adapting national legislation to the EU Regulation governing crowdfunding (2020/1503), and the related Delegated Regulations.

The EU Regulation stipulates that, as of 11 November 2023, only crowdfunding service providers for businesses authorised under EU law will be able to operate in Italy. Providers authorised under national law, who will only be able to provide services to companies until 10 November 2023, are invited to submit their application for authorisation in good time in order to continue beyond that date without interruption, also in view of the timing for the granting of authorisation under the European Regulation. Operators are urged to pay attention to the completeness, clarity and consistency of the information contained in the authorisation application that is to be submitted to the Supervisory Authority.

The text of the resolution of adoption of the Regulation and the document on the results of the consultation are available on the website (https://www.consob.it/web/area-pubblica/consultazioni). With the entry into force of the new Consob Regulation, the Regulation on raising capital through online portals, adopted with Consob Resolution no. 18592 of 26 June 2013, is repealed.

Consob also invites operators to take into account, when preparing their application, all relevant legislation, including the implementing Delegated Regulations of the EU Regulation 1503 of 2020, and to consider the Bank of Italy's Supervisory Guidance published for the consultation on 17 May 2023 (Bank of Italy - Supervisory Guidance for specialised crowdfunding service providers).

In order to make it easier for operators to apply for authorisation, the Commission has made a fillable file available [published at the following link: https://www.consob.it/web/area-pubblica/crowdfunding-normativa-nazionale-secondaria] that can be used when preparing the application. The file converts the form annexed to Delegated Regulation (EU) 2022/2112 of the Commission of 13 July 2022 into an editable format and contains helpful instructions of an operational nature for its completion.

back to index

The Commission made some amendments to the Regulation on the activity of the Alternative Financial Dispute Resolution Scheme (ACF) in order to confirm the authority of the ACF regarding disputes between investors and crowdfunding service providers following the new Regulation (EU) 2020/1503 governing the sector (see Consob Resolution n. 22721 of 1 June 2023).

The implementation in Italy of the EU Regulation, with Legislative Decree no. 30 of 10 March 2023, had repealed Article 50-quinquies of the Consolidated Law on Finance (TUF), which regulates managers of portals for raising capital for small and medium-sized enterprises and social enterprises (an activity in which crowdfunding is involved) and which, having been included in Part II of the TUF, automatically fell under the ACF’s remit.

In order to prevent the regulatory change following the implementation of the EU Regulation from leading to the exclusion, from the operational scope of the ACF, of disputes that national law attributes to within the competence of the Scheme, certain amendments to the Regulation of the ACF were necessary.

In particular, it was necessary to integrate Article 4(1) of the ACF Regulation, which defines its scope of operation, by including an express reference to Regulation (EU) 2020/1503 in order to clarify that, disputes relating to the breach by crowdfunding service providers of the obligations of diligence, fairness, information and transparency established by the European regulation towards investors, fall within the competence of the ACF.

back to index

Consob approved the prospectus for the admission to trading on the Euronext Milan market (Star segment) of Unidata's shares, which will simultaneously cease to be traded on the multilateral trading system Euronext Growth Milan.

The prospectus - which contains the elements of risk relating to the issuer, the group, the market in which they operate and the financial instruments subject to admission to listing - is exclusively aimed at the admission of the company's ordinary shares to trading on Euronext Milan, for this reason an offer to the general public in Italy or abroad is not envisaged.

With the listing on Euronext Milan, Unidata will benefit from greater visibility towards strategic partners and institutional investors, possible increased liquidity of securities, and access to a larger risk capital market with a greater number of active investors than Euronext Growth Milan.

Unidata operates in the telecommunications sector and specialises in the design and implementation of complex networks for ultra-fast connectivity. The Unidata group, founded in 1985, operates mainly in the Lazio region offering Internet Service Provider (ISP) services, such as Internet access and hosting, as well as cloud and co-location services through its own data center and voice telephony services using Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology. On 28 February 2023, Unidata acquired 100 per cent of the Twt group, considered to be one of the leading operators in the field of telecommunications and connection and communication services, operating mainly in Northern Italy.

At the date of the prospectus, Unidata is controlled by Uninvest, which holds 55.04% of the share capital and exercises 55.04% of the voting rights. On the date of commencement of trading, the issuer will continue to be legally controlled by Uninvest and, consequently, will not be contestable. The issuer reports that it is not subject to any management and coordination activities.

back to index

How should the framework of rules surrounding the Market Abuse Directive (MAR) be applied, and to whom should financial offences such as market abuse be attributed, in the face of artificial intelligence (AI) systems capable of producing autonomous investment decisions and for which human input cannot always be identified, given the opacity of the black box enclosing the algorithms?

This is the question that Consob's Legal Research Paper no. 29 entitled "AI and market abuse: do robotics laws apply to financial transactions?" tries to answer, written by Federico Consulich (University of Turin), Marco Maugeri (European University of Rome), Carlo Milia (Head of Consob's Market Abuse Office), Tommaso Nicola Poli e Gianfranco Trovatore both from Consob's Legal Studies Office.

If in 'weak' AI systems it is possible to trace instructions from humans, 'strong' systems are endowed with self-learning capabilities and produce autonomous and unpredictable outputs with respect to the initial inputs, pointing out the need - especially in trading - for innovative mechanisms for the attribution of offences that are able to balance the protection of market integrity with the demands of technological innovation.

The study examines possible solutions to prosecute violations of market integrity committed by AI systems: giving them a legal personality, a scenario made impossible by the difficulties in attributing wilful misconduct and gross negligence to AI systems and in enforcing sanctions; going beyond the concept of liability by making the community bear the cost caused by the offence; and finally, attributing liability to the producer, programmer, or user who has created the risk of an offence by using AI.

The latter is an approach which finds a precedent in the proposed EU Regulation on artificial intelligence where the principles of prevention and precaution are applied for unacceptable-risk AI systems and high-risk AI systems, respectively. However, if the creation of a risk capable of producing the event is sufficient for attribution, high-risk activities could also include trading, with the relative obligation on the part of the subjects in the production chain to observe a number of compliance requirements, in the absence of which administrative liability would arise.

back to index

Consob and Bocconi University of Milan are holding a seminar on 19 June from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. to present the Consob Legal Research Paper no. 28 entitled "The mapping of financial products from the perspective of investor protection" at Bocconi University, Classroom N04, Piazza Sraffa 13, Milan.

The proceedings will be opened by Marco Ventoruzzo (Bocconi University) and Chiara Mosca (Consob Commissioner).

It shall be discussed by Paola Lucantoni (University of Rome 'Tor Vergata'), Andrea Perrone (Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, Milan) and Emanuele Rimini (University of Milan). Michele Siri will moderate (University of Genoa).

Antonella Sciarrone Alibrandi (Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, Milan) will conclude the proceedings.

back to index

The supervisory authorities of United Kingdom (Financial Conduct Authority - Fca), Brazil (Comissão de Valores Mobiliários - Cvm), Luxembourg (Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier - CSSF), Spain (Comisión Nacional del Mercado de Valores - Cnmv)andGreece (Hellenic Capital Market Commission - Hcmc) report the companies and websites offering investment, financial and insurance services without the required authorisations.

Reported by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) - United Kingdom:

  • Trezo Capital (www.trezocapital.com, www.trezocapital.co);
  • Phunemz Coins Fx (www.phunemzcoinsfx.com);
  • Fx Plannet / Fxplannet (www.fxplannet.com).

Reported by the Comissão de Valores Mobiliários (CVM) - Brazil:

  • Fundiza Ltd (https://pt.fundiza.com);
  • Po Trade Ltd (https://pocketoption.com/pt);
  • Arvis Capital Ltd (www.investmarkets.com/international);
  • Investmarkets (www.investmarkets.com/international);
  • Nixse Ltd (https://pt.nixse.com).

Reported by the Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier (CSSF) – Luxembourg:

https://www.mon-acces-personnel.com, clone of a licensed company.

Reported by the Comisión Nacional del Mercado de Valores (CNMV) – Spain:

  • Mavpcapital (https://mavpcapital.wixsite.com/mavpcapital;
  • Clair Capital (https://claircapital.co);
  • Fx Mundo (https://www.fxmundo.com);
  • Loden Servicess Ltd (https://lodenservicess.com);
  • Omegarox Ltd (https://omegarox.com);
  • Openmarkets (https://openmarkets.cfd);
  • Oxshare Llc (https://oxshare.com);
  • Verum Investments Inc (www.verumhk.com);
  • Zenith Visual Cointrade (https://zenithvisualcointrade.org).

Reported by the Hellenic Capital Market Commission – (HCMC) – Greece:

  • www.smitrade.com, www.smitrade.eu.

 back to index

Consob Regulation
Prospectuses

  • The registration document of FinecoBank Spa relating to the offer of non-equity securities to retail investors has been approved (decision of 1 June 2023).

Registers and lists

Xconnect Trading Limited, with registered office in the United Kingdom was authorised, pursuant to Article 28, paragraph 6, of the Consolidated Law on Finance, to perform, under the freedom to provide services in Italy to qualified counterparties and/or professional customers as identified pursuant to Article 6, paragraph 2-quinquies, letter a), and paragraph 2-sexies, letter a) of the same Consolidated Law on Finance, the investment service of execution of orders on behalf of customers, as referred to in Article 1, paragraph 5, letter b), of Legislative Decree no. 58 of 24 February 1998, in the following manner: without holding, even temporarily, customers' liquid assets and financial instruments. Xconnect Trading Limited is registered in the section of third-country firms other than the banks of the register referred to in Article 20 of the Consolidated Law on Finance. The company is authorised to operate in Italy in accordance with the provisions applicable to third-country investment firms pursuant to the Consolidated Law on Finance and is subject to the supervisory regime laid down therein (resolution no. 22719 of 1 June 2023).

Combating market abuse (art. 7-octies of the Consolidated Law on Finance)

Order, pursuant to art. 7-octies, letter b) of Italian Legislative Decree no. 58 of 24 February 1998 (Consolidated Law on Finance) to cease infringement of art. 18 of Consolidated Law on Finance, put in place by:

back to index

CONSOB INFORMS (Rome Tribunal Registration no. 250 of 30/10/2013) Chief Editor: Manlio Pisu - Editorial board: Antonella Nibaldi (coordinator), Claudia Amadio, Riccardo Carriero, Luca Cecchini, Domenico Conti, Laura Ferri, Chiara Tomaiuoli, Alfredo Gloria - Address: CONSOB Via G. B. Martini, 3 - 00198 Rome - telephone: (06) 84771 - fax: (06) 8417707. Documents or reports can be submitted via the interactive section of the web site www.consob.it, where CONSOB INFORMA can also be consulted via the "newsletter" link.
SPAN>