Resolution no. 22615

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.newfx.us 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 website www.newfx.us offers potential investors are offered the opportunity to trade CFDs on currencies, indices, commodities and shares;

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

iii. as far as traceability is concerned, the Terms and Conditions of the website www.newfx.us makes reference to NewFx Ltd with no indication of any registered office; at the bottom of the pages of the same website www.newfx.us generic references are made to the separate entity New Finance LLC with no indication of any registered office;

HAVING REGARD TO Consob Resolutions no. 22105 of 1 December 2021 and no. 22288 of 31 March 2022, which ordered the cessation of infringement of article 18 of the Consolidated Law on Finance conducted through the separate website www.newfx.co and the further website www.newfx.trading and the respective page https://newfx.tradingweb.io

WHEREAS, in addition to using a domain that is similar in name to the domain of the aforementioned website www.newfx.co as well as the separate website www.newfx.trading and to the respective page https://newfx.tradingweb.io, the website www.newfx.us replicates the contents and graphic format of the same domains www.newfx.co, www.newfx.trading and https://newfx.tradingweb.io;

WHEREAS the activity carried out through the website www.newfx.us is deemed to constitute 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 website www.newfx.us, is ongoing and addressed to Italian investors, insofar as there have been reports of cold calling of Italian consumers relating to the website www.newfx.us. In addition, no mechanism was found on the website www.newfx.us aimed at preventing registration by users who attempt to register to the said domain from Italy/through Italian IP addresses and complaints have also been received from Italian savers in relation to the activities promoted by the website www.newfx.us; Moreover, records have been filed containing conversations that took place through emails and instant messaging applications, in Italian between Italian savers and representatives of the website www.newfx.us;

WHEREAS the New Finance LLC and NewFx Ltd, mentioned on the website, are not authorised to engage in the provision of investment services to the Italian public, insofar as they do not appear 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.newfx.us 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.

1st March 2023

THE CHAIRMAN
Paolo Savona