Resolution no. 22796

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.virtufinancialireland.com and the page https://webtrader.virtufinancialireland.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, 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:

i. the website www.virtufinancialireland.com, which is active, registered anonymously and also available in Italian, advertises a "multi-terminal platform" which, after registering and opening an account, allows users to trade forex instruments and CFDs on share indices, commodities, shares, metals and energy;

ii. 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;

iii. after registering, users can connect to the reserved area of the site where it is possible to access: a section for sending documents to verify the user's identity; a section for making deposits by credit card; a webtrading platform at https://webtrader.virtufinancialireland.com available in Italian, through which it is possible to trade various currency and cryptocurrency pairs, as well as CFDs, indices and commodities;

iv. as to traceability of the website under examination, generic reference is made to "VirtuFinance" and the website contains the e-mail addresses support@virtufinancialireland.com and support@virtufinancial.eu;

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 separate website www.virtufinance.com and the page https://webtrader.virtufinance.com;

HAVING REGARD to Consob Resolution no. 22695 of 11 May 2023, whereby "VIRTU FINANCE" was ordered to cease the infringement of article 18 of the Consolidated Law on Finance carried out via the separate website www.virtufinancial.eu and the page https://webtrader.virtufinancial.eu;

WHEREAS, in addition to using a domain which is similar to the aforementioned sites, the content of the website www.virtufinancialireland.com is substantially similar to the sites www.virtufinance.com and www.virtufinancial.eu;

WHEREAS the activity carried out via the website www.virtufinancialireland.com and the page https://webtrader.virtufinancialireland.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.virtufinancialireland.com and the page https://webtrader.virtufinancialireland.com, is still ongoing and is aimed at Italian investors, given that both the website and the respective page are available in Italian, a complaint from an Italian citizen was received, and that no mechanism has been found to block registration by users attempting to register with the domains from Italy through Italian IP addresses;

WHEREAS such activity carried out through the website www.virtufinancialireland.com and the page https://webtrader.virtufinancialireland.com cannot be attributed to any entity that is 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 through the Internet without being qualified pursuant to this decree: […] b) order that such 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.virtufinancialireland.com and the page https://webtrader.virtufinancialireland.com, which constitutes the provision of investment services and activities to the Italian public.

This Resolution shall be brought to the attention of 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.

26 July 2023

THE CHAIRMAN
Paolo Savona