Resolution no. 22621

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 www.virtufinance.com and the relevant page https://webtrader.virtufinance.com

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, from the checks carried out, it emerged that:

1. the website www.virtufinance.com, which is active, registered anonymously and also available in Italian, offers users the opportunity, after registering and opening an account, to trade forex instruments and CFDs on share indices, commodities, shares, metals and energy.
2. five types of account are offered on the website, named "MICRO", "SILVER", "GOLD", "PLATINUM" and "EXCLUSIVE" ("MICRO", "ARGENTO", "ORO", "PLATINO", "ESCLUSIVO"), depending on the minimum deposit required and the benefits promised;
3. after registering, users can access the reserved area of the website which contains a dashboard available in Italian that provides access to: - a section for sending documents to verify your identity; - a section for depositing funds via credit card; - a web trading platform, https://webtrader.virtufinance.com, available in Italian, through which users can trade various currency pairs and cryptocurrencies, as well as CFDs, indices and commodities;
4. as for the traceability of the aforementioned website, in the section "The Company" reference is made to an unspecified trademark "VirtuFinance" which could not be attributed to a specific legal entity, whereas the contact section only contains the email address support@virtufinance.com;

WHEREAS the activity carried out through the website www.virtufinance.com and the relevant page https://webtrader.virtufinance.com 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 on which it is possible to issue purchase and/or sale orders relating to financial instruments;

WHEREAS the aforementioned activity, carried out through the website www.virtufinance.com and the respective page https://webtrader.virtufinance.com, is still ongoing and is aimed at Italian investors, given that both the website and the respective page are available in Italian and that complaints have been received from Italian citizens and, in some cases, that there have also been reports of cold calls being made to retail investors in Italy; Furthermore, no mechanism was found aimed at blocking registration by users attempting to register with the website from Italy via Italian IP addresses;

WHEREAS the abovementioned internet domains could not 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 www.virtufinance.com and the relevant page https://webtrader.virtufinance.com, constituted by 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.

8 March 2023

THE CHAIRMAN
Paolo Savona