Resolution no. 22695

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 via the website www.virtufinancial.eu and the page https://webtrader.virtufinancial.eu

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, as subsequently amended and supplemented;

HAVING REGARD TO Legislative Decree no. 58 of 24 February 1998 ("Consolidated Law on Finance"), as subsequently amended and supplemented;

HAVING ESTABLISHED that, from the checks carried out, it emerged that:

1. the website www.virtufinancial.eu, 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, it is possible to log into the reserved area of the website where users can make deposits into the trading account and access the trading platform of the website at https://webtrader.virtufinancial.eu, available in Italian;
4. with regard to the legal entity that was found to operate the website in question, generic reference is made to "VirtuFinance" and only the email address support@virtufinancial.com is provided;

HAVING REGARD to Consob Resolution no. 22621 of 8 March 2023, whereby "VIRTU FINANCE" was ordered to cease the infringement of article 18 of the Consolidated Law on Finance carried out via the other website www.virtufinance.com and the page https://webtrader.virtufinance.com;

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

WHEREAS "VirtuFinance", as mentioned on the website, is not authorised to provide investment services to the Italian public, insofar as it is not listed on the register maintained by Consob pursuant to article 20 of the Consolidated Law on Finance;

HAVING REGARD TO the requirement to hold a relevant licence to provide investment services and activities as per 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.virtufinancial.eu and the page https://webtrader.virtufinancial.eu, consisting in the offering and provision of investment services and activities to the Italian public.

This Resolution shall be brought to the attention of 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.

11 May 2023

THE CHAIRMAN
Paolo Savona