Resolution no. 21681

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 carried out through the website https://fxfinancepro.com and its page https://client.fxfinancepro.com

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 and subsequent amendments and supplements;

HAVING REGARD TO Legislative Decree no. 58 of 24 February 1998 ('Consolidated Law on Finance') and subsequent amendments and supplements;

HAVING ESTABLISHED that, from checks on the https://fxfinancepro.com website, it emerged that:

i. through the https://fxfinancepro.com website, which is active, also available in Italian and registered anonymously, potential investors are offered CFD trading opportunities relating to currencies and futures, commodities and shares;

ii. in order to be able to trade as mentioned above, the user is invited to register with the https://fxfinancepro.com website, access the personal area at https://client.fxfinancepro.com, open an account and spend sums of money;

iii. in particular, there are three types of account mentioned on the website https://fxfinancepro.com, known as 'Mini', 'Classic', and 'Premium', depending on the minimum deposit required and the benefits promised;

iv. as regards the traceability, the website https://fxfinancepro.com mentions both “Fxfinancepro” and “Globalinvestfx”. In particular, in the section of the website https://fxfinancepro.com called “Terms and Conditions”, “Fxfinancepro” is the contractual counterparty of a user registering with the website: stating that “this agreement is made by the user and the Fxfinancepro platform”; in additional sections of the https://fxfinancepro.com website, “Globalinvestfx” is also mentioned several times;

WHEREAS the activity carried out through the https://fxfinancepro.com websiteand the related page https://client.fxfinancepro.com may be considered as the provision of investment services within the meaning of article 1, paragraph 5, of the Consolidated Law on Finance, given that users are offered the opportunity of opening, through above domains, a trading account against which purchase and/or sale orders for financial instruments may be issued;

WHEREAS the above transactions, carried out through the https://fxfinancepro.com websiteand the related page https://client.fxfinancepro.com, are still ongoing and aimed at Italian investors, since the domains mentioned above are also available in Italian;

WHEREAS “Fxfinancepro” and “Globalinvestfx”, mentioned on the https://fxfinancepro.com website, are not authorised to provide investment services to the Italian public, since they are not listed in the register kept by Consob pursuant to article 20 of the Consolidated Law on Finance;

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 professional provision of investment services and activities to the public is reserved to Stock brokerage 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 art. 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 activity' - 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 the cessation of the infringement';

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://fxfinancepro.com website and its https://client.fxfinancepro.com page, consisting in offering and providing investment services and activities to the Italian public.

This Resolution shall be brought to the attention of those whom it concerns and will be 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.

January 14, 2021

THE CHAIRMAN
Paolo Savona