Resolution no. 22271

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 www.mbinv.eu

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 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 website www.mbinv.eu – which is active, registered anonymously and available in Italian – offers potential investors the opportunity to trade CFDs on currencies, indices, shares and commodities through a trading platform;

ii. in order to place such transactions, users must register with the website www.mbinv.eu, through a procedure that is also available for Italian users, and open a trading account and deposit relevant funds;

iii. in particular, five types of accounts are mentioned on the website www.mbinv.eu, named "Micro", "Argento", "Oro", "Platino" and "Esclusivo", which vary depending on the minimum deposit required and the benefits promised;

iv. as for the traceability of the site, in addition to generic references to "MBInvest", the footer of the site also states that "MBInvest.eu is a trade name operated by NAB Europe Limited";

HAVING REGARD TO resolutions no. 21735 of 25 February 2021, no. 21784 of 31 March 2021 and no. 21843 of 12 May 2021 and no. 21979 of 29 July 2021, whereby Nab Europe Limited, with stated registered office in London, was ordered to cease its infringement of article 18 of the Consolidated Law on Finance conducted through the separate and distinct domains www.nabconsulting.eu, www.nabeuropeltd.com, www.nabeuropelimited.com and www.nabinv.com, respectively;

WHEREAS the activity carried out through the website www.mbinv.eu constitutes 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 to open a trading account and place buy and/or sell orders on financial instruments;

WHEREAS the above-described activity, carried out through the website www.mbinv.eu, is still ongoing and is aimed at Italian investors, insofar as the aforesaid website is also available in Italian and there have been reports of cold calling towards Italian retail savers;

WHEREAS Nab Europe Limited, with stated registered office in London, and "MBInvest", as mentioned on the website www.mbinv.eu, are not authorised to provide investment services to the Italian public, since they are not listed in 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 for licensed parties as referred to under article 18, paragraph 1, of the Consolidated Law on Finance, pursuant to which"The commercial 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 carried out through the website www.mbinv.eu, constituted by the provision of 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.

16 March 2022

THE CHAIRMAN
Paolo Savona