Resolution no. 21776

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 https://24fintime.io 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 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 website, it emerged that:

i. via the website https://24fintime.io - which is active and in part available in Italian, potential investors are offered the opportunity to trade CFDs with underlying indices and commodities on the Forex market through the platform MetaTrader4;

ii. in order to trade, registration with the site is required via an online procedure - that permits access to a reserved area of the website which is also available in Italian - and one of the accounts advertised on the website must be opened; more specifically, seven different types of accounts are available, which, depending on the minimum deposit required and benefits promised are called "Standard Account", "Cent Account", "Stock CFDs Account", "Stocks Account", "ECN Zero Account", "ECN Account" and "ECN Account Pro";

iii. as to the site's traceability, the company Widdershins Group Ltd with its registered address in the Commonwealth of Dominica is indicated at the foot of the website pages;

iv. the "Contact us" page of the website gives an e-mail address specifically dedicated to Italian users (compliance.it@24fintime.io);

WHEREAS the activity carried out through the https://24fintime.io website can be classed as the provision of investment services as referred to in article 1, paragraph 5, of the Consolidated Law on Finance, insofar as clients are offered the opportunity of opening a trading account against which purchase and/or sale orders for financial instruments can be issued;

WHEREAS the aforementioned transactions, carried out through the website https://24fintime.io, are still ongoing and are addressed to Italian investors given that the website is in part available in Italian and has a "Contact us" page with an email address specifically for Italian users;

WHEREAS the company Widdershins Group Ltd, mentioned on the website https://24fintime.io, is not authorised to provide investment services to the Italian public, since it does not appear on 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 abusive practices" - 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://24fintime.io 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 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.

25 March 2021

THE CHAIRMAN
Paolo Savona