Newsletter - CONSOB AND ITS ACTIVITIES
Newsletter
News of the week:
Watch for scams! Financial fraud: Consob blacks out 7 more unauthorised websites
SAVE THE DATE Friday 22 March 2024: Seminar on Governance, Gender and Climate as part of the Academic Cycle dedicated to "New Frontiers in financial markets and financial
regulation"
SAVE THE DATE Thursday, 9 May 2024: Seminar entitled "Tokenisation of financial instruments - outlook for the Italian market"
Starting today, 18 March, Global Money Week
Appointment of Commissioners Mosca and Cornelli to the Technical Committee for the reform of the TUF
Commission decisions
Management decision
Consob has ordered the blackout of 7 new websites that abusively offer financial services/financial products: 6 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:
- Mib40fx (https://mib40fx.com website and its https://crm.mib40fx.com and https://trading.wbtplt03.com pages);
- Ai2Trade Ltd (https://ai2trade.co.com website and its https://panel.ai2trade.co.com and https://trading.ai2trade.co.com pages).
- FCapital24 (website https://fcapital24.eu);
- Fx-Flat (https://fx-flat.com website and its https://panel.fx-flat.com page);
- Rounda Partners Limited (https://isotrader.cc website);
- Free Trade Cfd (https://free-tradecfd.com website and its https://client.free-tradecfd.com page);
- Realcapitallc (https://realcapitallc.co website).
The number of sites blacked out since July 2019, when Consob was given the power to order the black-out of websites of fraudulent financial intermediaries, has thus risen to 1042.
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.
Please note, there is a section on the homepage of the www.consob.it website, entitled "Watch for Scams!", which provides useful information warning investors about fraudulent financial schemes.
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Consob has also suspended, for a period of 90 days, pursuant to Article 99, paragraph 1, letter b) of the Consolidated Law on Finance (TUF), the offer to the public resident in Italy involving "Investment Plans" called "Base", "Magnate", "Platinum", "Expert" and "VIP" made by the so-called "Realcapitallc" including via the https://realcapitallc.co website (Resolution no. 23033 of 13 March 2024).
On Friday, 22 March 2024, at 4:00 pm, Consob and the Faculty of Economics of the Sapienza University of Rome will hold the 2023-2024 cycle seminar dedicated to the new frontiers in financial markets and regulation, entitled Governance, gender and climate in the Aula Acquario of the Sapienza University of Rome, in Via del Castro Laurenziano, 9.
The following papers will be presented during the seminar:
- Women in board networks and their impact on governance and performance by Daniel Ferreira (London School of Economics and Political Science)
- Does gender diversity in the workplace mitigate climate change? by Alessio Reghezza (European Central Bank).
Gabriella Alemanno (Consob Commissioner), Giovanni Di Bartolomeo (Dean of the Faculty of Economics, Sapienza University of Rome), Luca Filippa (Consob Director General) and Marina Brogi (Sapienza University of Rome) will speak.
You are free to attend until the capacity of the room is reached; it is also possible to follow the event by streaming it at the following link: https://uniroma1.zoom.us/j/85911301945.
On Thursday 9 May 2024, from 2:15 pm to 5:30 pm, at the Auditorium in Rome (Via C. Monteverdi 35), Consob will hold a seminar entitled "The tokenisation of financial instruments – Outlook for the Italian market".
The event will be opened by Piero Cipollone, member of the Executive Committee of the European Central Bank, and closed by Paolo Savona, Chair of Consob.
Attendance is free of charge, although attendees are asked to register online at: http://www.consob.it/web/area-pubblica/iscrizione-seminari.
The complete programme of the event will be available shortly.
The 2024 edition of Global Money Week (GMW), the week dedicated to financial education, will be held from today, 18 March, until 24 March 2024 and will be coordinated for Italy by the Committee for the Planning and Coordination of Financial Education Activities, in which Consob also participates.
Consob has been participating in Global Money Week, an international initiative promoted by the OECD and dedicated to young people from preschool age onwards, s ince 2015. Since its launch, in 2012, it has reached more than 60 million boys and girls in 176 countries. The aim of the event is to raise young people's awareness of the importance of acquiring the necessary skills to make financial decisions in a responsible and informed manner.
The theme of this edition of GMW is "Protect your money, secure your future".
This theme underlines the importance of adopting a responsible and informed approach in managing personal finances, of being aware of the potential risks in the financial sector and in particular for young people of those connected to online scams and fraud but also more generally to those deriving from unreliable information and advice on the web.
Among the ongoing initiatives of note are the two meetings organised by Consob on 18 and 22 March in Sardinia (respectively at Olbia and Alghero) on the topic "Literacy and financial education from the birth of the stock exchanges to the markets involving cryptoassets" and the event "Online scams: preventing, combating and supporting victims" by the National Association of State Police, Pontedera Division".
You can consult all the ongoing initiatives during the week and how to take part in them at the following link: https://www.quellocheconta.gov.it/it/news-eventi/global_money_week/eventi_2024/index.html.
The Ministry of the Economy and Finance, by order of the Chief of Staff of 14 March 2024, appointed Consob Commissioners, Maria Chiara Mosca and Federico Cornelli as members of the Technical Committee for the reform of the Consolidated Law on Finance - TUF, envisaged by the Law on the competitiveness of capital markets (Law no. 21 of 5.3.2024). The Coordination Committee for the analysis and in-depth study of the issues relating to the overall reform of the provisions on capital markets was established in order to help implement the delegation to the Government to adopt, within 12 months of the entry into force of the law (by 27 March 2025 therefore) one or more legislative decrees for the overall reform of the provisions on capital markets contained in 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:
- Mib40fx via the https://mib40fx.com website and its https://crm.mib40fx.com and https://trading.wbtplt03.com pages (resolution no. 23034 of 13 March 2024);
- Ai2Trade Ltd via the https://ai2trade.co.com website and its https://panel.ai2trade.co.com and https://trading.ai2trade.co.com pages (resolution no. 23035 of 13 March 2024);
- FCapital24 via the https://fcapital24.eu website (resolution no. 23036 of 13 March 2024);
- Fx-Flat via the https://fx-flat.com website and its https://panel.fx-flat.com page (resolution no. 23039 of 13 March 2024);
- Rounda Partners Limited via the https://isotrader.cc website (resolution no. 23037 of 13 March 2024);
- Free Trade Cfd via the https://free-tradecfd.com website and its https://client.free-tradecfd.com page (resolution no. 23038 of 13 March 2024).
The Head of the Intermediaries Division has accepted the request for forfeiture, by express waiver, by Mirabaud Securities Limited, of the authorisation to carry out the investment activity of trading on its own behalf referred to in Article 1, paragraph 5, letter a) of Italian Legislative Decree no. 58 of 24 February 1998. Mirabaud Securities Limited remains registered in the Register of third-country companies other than banks under Article 20, paragraph 1, of Italian Legislative Decree no. 58 of 24 February 1998 and is authorised to provide the following investment services/activities (without holding, even temporarily, financial instruments and customers' cash and cash equivalents) and accessories: execution of orders on behalf of customers; advice to companies on capital structure, industrial strategy and related matters, as well as advice and services relating to mergers and the purchase of companies; research on investments and financial analysis or other forms of general recommendation relating to transactions in financial instruments. The full text of management decision no. 97 of 11 March 2024 is available on the www.consob.it. website.