Resolution no. 23323

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 https://ibsmarkets.net website

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 the checks carried out, it emerged that:

i. potential investors are offered the opportunity through the website https://ibsmarkets.net– which is active, also available in Italian and registered anonymously – to trade shares, indices, contracts for difference (CFD), digital currencies and commodities on the Forex market;

ii. on the website, some types of account are proposed, known as "Standard", "Silver", "Gold" and "VIP", depending on the minimum deposit required and the benefits promised;

iii. after registering, users may log into the reserved area, which consists of seven sections ("Account Summary", "Personal Information", "Deposit", "Transactions", "Withdrawal", "Account Verification" and "Refer a Friend") and contains a specific function to place deposits and currency on the trading account;

iv. with regard to the legal entity to which the website refers, there are generic references to"IBSMarkets" and in the "Contact Us" section there is the email address support@ibsmarkets.co;

WHEREAS the activity carried out through the https://ibsmarkets.net website may be considered as the provision of investment services pursuant to article 1, paragraph 5, of the Consolidated Law on Finance, given that the aforesaid domain offers users the opportunity of opening a trading account against which orders to buy and/or sell financial instruments may be issued;

WHEREAS the above activity, carried out via the https://ibsmarkets.net website is still ongoing and is aimed at Italian investors, given that the website is active, also available in Italian, and that cold calling of Italian consumers has been reported; furthermore no mechanism was found to block registration by users attempting to register from Italy through Italian IP addresses and some reports have been received from Italian individuals who have complained that they were unable to get their money back;

WHEREAS such activity carried out through the https://ibsmarkets.net website cannot be attributed to any entity that is 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 commercial 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 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://ibsmarkets.net website, 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.

20 November 2024

THE CHAIRMAN
Paolo Savona