Resolution no 22584

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.jkcforex.com website and its https://client.jkcforex.com page

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.jkcforex.com website - which is active and also available in Italian through an automatic translation system - offers potential investors the opportunity to trade CFDs on currencies, commodities and indices via a trading platform;

ii. in order to place such trades, users must register with the website through a procedure that is also available for Italian users, open an account and deposit funds at the url address https://client.jkcforex.com;

iii. as for the traceability of the www.jkcforex.com website, there is a reference on it to the "Jkcforex Group Limited", whose registered office is not indicated;

WHEREAS the activity carried out through the www.jkcforex.com website and its https://client.jkcforex.com page 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 opportunity 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.jkcforex.com website and its https://client.jkcforex.com webpage, is still ongoing and is aimed at Italian investors, given that the website is available in Italian by means of machine translation systems, cold calling of Italian customers has been reported, no mechanism has been found to block registration by users attempting to register with the website from Italy/through Italian IP addresses and complaints have been received from Italian retail investors;

WHEREAS the abovementioned 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 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 the 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 the cessation of the infringement of article 18 of Legislative Decree no. 58/98 conducted through the www.jkcforex.com website and the relevant https://client.jkcforex.com webpage, 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 the date of service.

8 February 2023

THE CHAIRMAN
Paolo Savona