Resolution no. 22701

Order, pursuant to article 7-octies, paragraph 1, letter b) of Legislative Decree no. 58/1998 ("Consolidated Law on Finance") to cease infringement of article 18 of the Consolidated Law on Finance committed via the www.markersfin.com website and its https://cabinet.markersfin.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, 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 checks on the web, it emerged that:

1. via the markersfin.com website, which is active and also available in Italian by means of a machine translation systems, potential investors are given the opportunity of trading on forex, CFDs, indices, commodities, and digital currencies via a trading platform;
2. to carry out the afore-mentioned transactions, users must register with the markersfin.com website, following a procedure that is also available to users connected from Italy, and open a trading account; After registering, users can access the reserved area of the website available at https://cabinet.markersfin.com, where, clicking on the “Web Trader” hyperlink, they can access the trading platform;
3. as to the traceability of the markersfin.com website, a generic reference is made in the domain to “MarkersFin”, while the contractual terms and conditions refer to the “MarkersFin Limited”, which purportedly has its registered office in San Francisco, California;

WHEREAS the activity carried out via the www.markersfin.com website and the related https://cabinet.markersfin.com page is to be considered as 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 via the www.markersfin.com website and the relate https://cabinet.markersfin.com page, is still ongoing and is aimed at Italian investors, insofar as the above domains are available in Italian by means of a machine translation systems, no mechanism has been found to block registration by users attempting to register with said website from Italy/via Italian IP addresses and reports of cold calling of Italian customers have been received;

WHEREAS the www.markersfin.com website and the related https://cabinet.markersfin.com page may not be attributed to any entity 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”;

CONSIDERING therefore that the operations in question qualify as the professional provision of investment services to the Italian public, in breach 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 to do so pursuant to this decree: […] b) order the cessation of the breach”;

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 infringement of article 18 of Legislative Decree no. 58/98 committed via the www.markersfin.com website and the related https://cabinet.markersfin.com page, constituted by the offer and provision of investment services and activities to the Italian public.

This Resolution shall be brought to the attention of all the interested 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.

18 May 2023

THE CHAIRMAN
Paolo Savona