Resolution no. 22547

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://nbimarkets.net and respective webpages https://account.nbimarkets.net and https://trading.nbimarkets.net

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 checks on the internet ascertained that:

i. the website https://nbimarkets.net, which is active, registered anonymously and available only in Italian, offers potential investors the opportunity, subject to prior opening of an account, to trade CFDs on currencies, shares, commodities and cryptocurrencies;

ii. in order to place such trades, users must register with the website https://nbimarkets.net through a procedure that is also available for Italian users via the account link which routes users to the page https://account.nbimarkets.net ; specifically, four types of account are advertised on the website, according to the minimum deposit required and the benefits promised, referred to as “Conto Micro”, “Conto Argento”, “ Conto Oro” and “Conto Platino” (Micro Account, Silver Account, Gold Account, Platinum Account);

iii. after registering, users can access the reserved area of the website available at https://trading.nbimarkets.net , where they can make deposits into their account and access the trading platform;

iv. as for traceability, among other things, generic references are made to NBI Markets;

HAVING REGARD TO Consob Resolution no. 22504 of 9 November 2022, whereby "NBI Markets" was ordered to cease its infringement of article 18 of the Consolidated Law on Finance carried out through the separate website https://nbimarkets.com and the respective webpages https://account.nbimarkets.com and https://trading.nbimarkets.com ;

WHEREAS the website https://nbimarkets.net and the respective webpages https://account.nbimarkets.net and https://trading.nbimarkets.net replicate the content and graphic format of the website https://nbimarkets.com and the respective pages https://account.nbimarkets.com and https://trading.nbimarkets.com ;

WHEREAS the activity carried out through the website https://nbimarkets.net and the relative pages https://account.nbimarkets.net and https://trading.nbimarkets.net is deemed to constitute 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 buy and/or sale orders on financial instruments;

WHEREAS the aforementioned activity, carried out through the website https://nbimarkets.net and the respective webpages https://account.nbimarkets.net and https://trading.nbimarkets.net , is still ongoing and is aimed at Italian investors, since the website https://nbimarkets.net and the registration page https://account.nbimarkets.net are available in Italian, and no mechanism was found aimed at blocking registration by users attempting to register with the website https://nbimarkets.net from Italy via Italian IP addresses;

WHEREAS the abovementioned internet domains cannot be attributed to any party authorised to provide investment services to the Italian public;

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 article 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 provision of investment services ” - Consob “ may, with regard to anyone who offers or carries out investment services or activities over the Internet without being qualified pursuant to this decree : […] b) order that the infringement 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 website https://nbimarkets.net and relevant pages https://account.nbimarkets.net and https://trading.nbimarkets.net , which constitute the offering and provision of investment services and activities to the Italian public.

This Resolution shall be disclosed to the public through publication in the Consob Bulletin.

This measure may be appealed before the Regional Administrative Court of Lazio within 60 days.

16 December 2022

THE CHAIRMAN
Paolo Savona