Resolution no. 20554

Order, pursuant to art. 7-octies, par. 1, letter b) of Legislative Decree no. 58/1998 ("Consolidated Law on Finance") to discontinue the infringement of article 18 of the Consolidated Law on Finance performed through the www.forexgrand24.com website

LA COMMISSIONE NAZIONALE PER LE SOCIETÀ E LA BORSA
[THE NATIONAL COMMISSION FOR COMPANIES AND THE STOCK EXCHANGE]

ACCORDING TO Law no. 216 of June 7, 1974, and subsequent amendments and additions;

ACCORDING TO Legislative Decree no. 58 of February 24, 1998 ('Consolidated Law on Finance') and subsequent amendments and additions;

GIVEN Resolution 20363 of 27 March 2018, with which CONSOB, pursuant to art. 7- octies, letter b) of the Consolidated Law on Finance, took the decision to order the termination of the infringement of art. 18 of the Consolidated Law on Finance with regard to the www.forexgrand.com website;

HAVING DISCOVERED, after verification of the www.forexgrand.com website, that:

i. by entering the URL www.forexgrand.com, the user is automatically redirected to the www.forexgrand24.com website, which is registered by a user whose identity is unknown and is also written in Italian and substantially replicates the contents of the www.forexgrand.com website;

ii. the potential investor, after registering on the www.forexgrand24.com website and opening an account using a specific online form, has the opportunity to trade in the currency market (FOREX) and in CFDs on various assets, including indexes, metals and energy using the MT4 platform;

iii. an initial monetary investment is required to carry out trading transactions, with payments made into the online account. This website offers various types of accounts, "Basic", "Gold" and "Platinum", mainly distinguishable by the required minimum deposit and the benefits. It is also possible to open Islamic Accounts;

vi. The website is said to be owned by the Capital FXG Ltd Company, allegedly based in the Marshall Islands, in the "Contact Us" section and at the foot of each page of the website, and "is operated by" Nordic Pearl Ltd, with a registered office in Sofia;

CONSIDERING that the activities carried out via the above mentioned website can be classified as investment services, as referred to in Art. 1, par. 5, of the Consolidated Law on Finance, insofar as the clients have the opportunity of opening a trading account with which the purchase and/or sale orders for financial instruments can be issued;

CONSIDERING that the aforementioned operations performed on the www.forexgrand24.com website, are directed towards Italian investors, insofar as the website is also available in Italian and there is no mechanism to prevent the registration of Italian users;

CONSIDERING that Capital FXG Ltd and Nordic Pearl Ltd are not authorised to provide investment services to the Italian public, insofar as these companies are not registered on the dedicated register managed by CONSOB, pursuant to Art. 20 of the Consolidated Law on Finance;

GIVEN that the provision of investment services and activities is reserved to authorised entities, as referred to under Article 18, par. 1, of the Consolidated Law on Finance, pursuant to which, 'The professional provision of investment services and activities for the public is reserved to investment firms and banks';

HAVING ESTABLISHED that the operations in question can be classified as professional provisions of investment services to the Italian public involving financial instruments, with the infringement of Art. 18, par. 1, of the Consolidated Law on Finance;

GIVEN that, according to Art. 7-octies of the Consolidated Law on Finance - 'Powers to counteract abuse' - CONSOB 'may, with regard to anyone who offers or carries out investment services or activities on Internet without being qualified according to this decree:

a) make, the circumstance that the party is not authorised to carry out the activity indicated by article 1, paragraph 5 public, for precautionary measures; b) order the termination of the infringement;

HEREBY RESOLVES:

To order the termination of the infringement of Art .18 of Legislative Decree no. 58/98 also performed by the www.forexgrand24.com website, consisting in the provision of investment services and activities to the Italian public.

This Resolution shall be brought to the attention of those concerned and published in CONSOB's Bulletin.

An appeal may be made against this measure to the Regional Administrative Court of Lazio within 60 days of the notification date .

August 2, 2018

On behalf of THE CHAIRMAN
Anna Genovese