Resolution no. 22169

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://ngtcm.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 7th June 1974 and subsequent amendments and supplements;

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

HAVING ESTABLISHED that, from checks on the web, it emerged that:

i. the https://ngtcm.com website – which is active and registered anonymously – offers potential investors the opportunity to trade CFDson shares and cryptocurrencies;

ii. in order to place such trades, an account must be opened and the relevant funds must be deposited; specifically, five types of account are offered, known as "Basic", "Silver", "Gold", "Platinum" and "Diamond", depending on the minimum deposit required and the benefits promised;

iii. on accessing the private personal area of the site, several features are available, including a specific function for depositing funds in the trading account;

iv. as far as traceability is concerned, generic references to "NGTCM" have been found on the https://ngtcm.com website, as well as an email address support@ngtcm.com;

WHEREAS the activity carried out through the https://ngtcm.com websiteconstitutes 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 domain to open a tradingaccount and place orders to buy and/or sell financial instruments;

WHEREAS the aforementioned transactions are still ongoing and are aimed at Italian investors, given that there have been reports ofcold calls to retail investors in Italy with reference to the transactions carried out on the https://ngtcm.com website;

WHEREAS "NGTCM", mentioned on the https://ngtcm.comwebsite, is not authorised to provide investment services to the Italian public, since it is not listed on the register maintained 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 Italian investment 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 performed through the website https://ngtcm.com, 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 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.

19 January 2022

THE CHAIRMAN
Paolo Savona