Resolution no. 23347

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.bvtbancolimited.com website

LA COMMISSIONE NAZIONALE PER LE SOCIETÀ E LA BORSA

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, as a result of the checks carried out on the website, it was found:

i. that the website www.bvtbancolimited.com existed, that it was active, registered anonymously and available in Italian through a machine translation system incorporated into the same website;

ii. that on the homepage of the website www.bvtbancolimited.com, users are offered "advisory services - investments" that the Company BVTBanco Limited would offer its customers and that these would refer to "traditional bond and equity products up to trading products on commodities, precious metals, the currency market and cryptocurrencies";

iii. that in the separate "About Us" section of the same website www.bvtbancolimited.com, mention is made of "private and corporate investment management" services that BVTBanco Ltd would offer its customers "operat[ing] as a [...] Private Bank". In this regard, the additional section entitled "Services" on the website www.bvtbancolimited.com states that BVTBanco would play the "role of independent manager [...] which allows for capital to be managed in a way that fully focuses on the best performance in relation to the chosen product";

iv. with regard to traceability, the website refers to the Company BVTBanco Limited. The "About Us" section of the www.bvtbancolimited.com website states that "BVT Banco [...] is currently present, in addition to the UK, with representative offices in Spain, Italy and Hungary". From the information acquired, it would appear that BVTBanco Ltd has its registered office in London and is attributable to Italian subjects. Regarding the references to the Italian "registered office" of BVTBanco Ltd mentioned on the websitewww.bvtbancolimited.com, evidence has been acquired relating to the presence of a registered office of said Company in Turin and, in the scope of the investigations undertaken, an additional address for BVTBanco Limited was reported in Turin. The email addressinfo@bvtbancolimited.com was provided in the "Contacts" section of the website www.bvtbancolimited.com;

WHEREAS the initiatives promoted through the website www.bvtbancolimited.com constitute the provision of investment services, as referred to in Article 1, paragraph 5 of the Consolidated Law on Finance, and in particular, investment advice services and portfolio management services, given that these services are specifically mentioned on thewww.bvtbancolimited.com website;

WHEREAS such activity, carried out via the www.bvtbancolimited.com website, is still ongoing and aimed at Italian investors, as the websitewww.bvtbancolimited.com is also available in Italian through an integrated automatic translation system, and contains specific references to the location of BVTBanco Limited in Italy. In addition, although established in England, BVTBanco Ltd it is attributable to Italian subjects and, with regard to the offices of BVTBanco Ltd in Italy, evidence relating to the presence of BVTBanco Ltd in Turin has been acquired and, as part of the investigations, an additional address for the same BVTBanco Limited was reported in Turin. In addition, complaints were received from Italian retail investors who claimed that they were unable to get back the money they had used to benefit from the services offered by BVTBanco Ltd;

WHEREAS the operations reported on the website www.bvtbancolimited.comcannot be attributed to any entity authorised to provide investment services to the Italian public, given that BVTBanco Ltd, which is mentioned on the website www.bvtbancolimited.com, does not appear on the register kept by Consob and the Bank of Italy;

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 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 that the 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 breach of article 18 of Legislative Decree no. 58/98 carried out via the www.bvtbancolimited.com website, consisting in offering and providing 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 from the communication.

5 December 2024

p. THE CHAIRMAN
Maria Chiara Mosca