Resolution no. 21793

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://upinvestfin.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 website, it emerged that:

i. the website https://upinvestfin.com offers potential investors the opportunity to place orders on the forex market and trade CFDs through a dedicated platform;

ii. in order to trade, users must register with the website via an online procedure and open one of the advertised accounts; more specifically, five types of accounts are available, known as "Starter", "Expert", "PRO", "Prime" and "AED Pro", depending on the minimum deposit and benefits promised;

iii. as regards the traceability of the website, the websites generally references the company "Up Invest Finance", without indicating any legal form or indication of any address referable to the registered office, however there are two e-mail addresses info@upinvestfin.com and support@upinvestfin.com;

WHEREAS the activity carried out through the https://upinvestfin.com 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 activity, carried out through the website https://upinvestfin.com, is still ongoing and is aimed at Italian investors, since there have been reports of cold calling retail investors in Italy;

WHEREAS the website https://upinvestfin.com cannot be attributed to any entity that is authorised to provide investment services to the Italian public on a commercial basis;

HAVING REGARD TO the requirement to hold a relevant licence to provide investment services and activities as per 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 investment services or activities over the Internet, without being qualified to do so pursuant to this decree: [...] b) order that such infringement must 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 infringement of article 18 of Legislative Decree no. 58/98 carried out through the https://upinvestfin.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 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.

8 April 2021

THE CHAIRMAN
Paolo Savona