Resolution no. 22462

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 www.mondialfx.com website and the relative https://platform.mondialfx.com webpage

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. through the www.mondialfx.com website - which is active and also available in Italian - potential investors are offered the possibility of trading shares, indices, commodities and CFDs via a dedicated trading platform;

ii. in order to place such trading transactions, users must register with the website, through a process that is also available to users connecting from Italy, and open a trading account on which to deposit funds; specifically, 9 different types of accounts are advertised on the website which differ, moreover, according to the required deposit; After registering, users can access the reserved area of the website onhttps://platform.mondialfx.com, where they can make deposits on the account and access the trading platform;

iii. as regards the traceability of the www.mondialfx.com website, amongst other things, there are also numerous generic references present on the domain to "Mondialfx";

WHEREAS the activity carried out through the www.mondialfx.com website and the relative https://platform.mondialfx.com webpage constitutes the provision of investment services, as referred to in article 1, paragraph 5, of the Consolidated Law on Finance, insofar as users are offered the possibility through the aforementioned domains to open a trading account and place orders to buy and/or sell financial instruments;

WHEREAS the above activity, carried out through the www.mondialfx.com website and the relative https://platform.mondialfx.com webpage, is still ongoing and is aimed at Italian investors, given that the aforesaid website and its related webpage are available in Italian, and that cold calling actions to contact Italian customers have been reported while no mechanism was found to block registration by users attempting to register with the said website from Italy/through Italian IP addresses;

WHEREAS "Mondialfx", mentioned on the www.mondialfx.com website, is not authorised to provide investment services to the Italian public, since it does not appear to be enrolled 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 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 www.mondialfx.com website and relevant https://platform.mondialfx.com page, constituting the offer and provision of investment services and activities to the Italian public.

This Resolution shall be brought to the attention of the all 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.

28 September 2022

THE CHAIRMAN
Paolo Savona