Resolution no. 22579

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.olympusbrokers.io website

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 www.olympusbrokers.io website, which is active, registered anonymously and available in Italian, offers potential investors the opportunity to trade CFDs on currencies, indices and shares;

ii. in order to place such trades, users must register with the www.olympusbrokers.io website via a procedure that is available for Italian users, open an account and deposit relevant funds;

iii. in particular, the www.olympusbrokers.io website mentions five types of account known as ""Apprentice", "Intermediate", "Superior", "Distinguished" and " Vip", depending on the minimum deposit required and the benefits offered;

iv. as for traceability, there are references on the www.olympusbrokers.io website to Olympusbrokers Ltd, with its stated registered office in Canada, for which an email address ( support@olympusbrokers.com) is provided;

HAVING REGARD TO Consob Resolution no. 22452 of 19 September 2022, whereby Olympusbrokers Ltd was ordered to cease the infringement of article 18 of the Consolidated Law on Finance conducted through the separate www.olympusbrokers.com website;

WHEREAS, in addition to using a domain that is partially superimposable on the domain of the aforementioned www.olympusbrokers.com website, the www.olympusbrokers.io website replicates the content and graphic format of the said www.olympusbrokers.com website;

WHEREAS the activity carried out through the www.olympusbrokers.io website constitutes 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 trading account and place orders on it to buy and/or sell financial instruments;

WHEREAS the aforementioned activity, carried out through the www.olympusbrokers.io website, is still ongoing and is aimed at Italian investors, insofar as said domain is available in Italian and no mechanism was found on the website to block registration by users attempting to register with the domain from Italy/via Italian IP addresses. In addition, complaints have been received from Italian retail investors in relation to the initiatives promoted through the said www.olympusbrokers.io website;

WHEREAS Olympusbrokers Ltd, with its stated registered office in Canada, mentioned on the website, is not authorised to provide investment services to the Italian public, since it is not enrolled 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 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 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 that the infringement cease of article 18 of Legislative Decree no. 58/98 performed through the www.olympusbrokers.io website, consisting in offering and providing 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 its notification.

1 February 2023

THE CHAIRMAN
Paolo Savona