Resolution no. 23368

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.lemintero.com 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 checks on the web, it emerged that:

i. potential investors are offered the opportunity via the website www.lemintero.com – which is active, registered anonymously and also available in Italian through an automatic translation system incorporated into the website – to trade CFDs on currencies, indices, cryptocurrencies and shares;

ii. in order to place such trades, users must register with the website www.lemintero.com, open an account and deposit relevant funds;

iii. in particular, four types of account are listed on the website www.lemintero.com, referred to as "Bronzo (Bronze)", "Argento (Silver)", "Oro (Gold)" and "Platino (Platinum)", depending on the minimum deposit required and the benefits promised;

iv. as to traceability, "Lemintero" with its alleged registered office in London is generically mentioned on the website;

WHEREAS the activity carried out via the www.lemintero.com website is deemed to constitute the provision of investment services pursuant to article 1, paragraph 5, of the Consolidated Law on Finance, given that users are offered the opportunity through said domains to open a trading account and place orders on it to buy and/or sell financial instruments;

WHEREAS the aforementioned activity, carried out via the website www.lemintero.com is ongoing and is aimed at Italian investors, given that the website www.lemintero.com is available in Italian through a machine translation system incorporated into the same website, and there have been reports of cold calls being made to retail investors in Italy in relation to the initiatives promoted via the website www.lemintero.com. In addition, a copy of conversations held in Italian through an instant messaging application between operators of the website www.lemintero.com and Italian investors was acquired, and financial losses have also been reported by Italian users in relation to the initiatives promoted on the same website www.lemintero.com;

WHEREAS the transactions recorded on the www.lemintero.com website are not attributed to any entity 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 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.lemintero.com website, constituted by the offer 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.

18 December 2024

THE CHAIRMAN
Paolo Savona