Resolution no. 22827

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 website www.fpinvest.io and its page https://client.fpinvest.io

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. potential investors are offered the opportunity through the website www.fpinvest.io – which is active, available in Italian and registered anonymously – to trade on shares, indices, currency contracts, digital currencies and commodities;
2. in order to place such trading transactions, users must register with the website www.fpinvest.io, through a process that is also available to users connecting from Italy, and open a trading account on which to deposit funds; specifically, 3 different types of accounts are advertised on the website ("Beginner", "Premium" and "Business") which differ, moreover, according to the required minimum deposit; After registering, users gain access to the restricted area at the URL https://client.fpinvest.io where they can, among other things, deposit funds into their trading account;
3. as to the traceability of the operations carried out on the website www.fpinvest.io, there are numerous references on the website to "FP Invest", allegedly based in the UK;

WHEREAS the activity carried out via the website www.fpinvest.io and its page https://client.fpinvest.io 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 aforementioned activity, carried out through the website www.fpinvest.io and its page https://client.fpinvest.io is still ongoing and is aimed at Italian investors, insofar as said domains are available in Italian and no mechanism was found to block registration by users attempting to register with the website from Italy through Italian IP addresses. Moreover, regarding the website www.fpinvest.io, reports have been received of investment solicitation by cold calling to retail investors in Italy, and furthermore complaints have been received from Italian retail investors;

WHEREAS the above domains cannot be attributed to an entity which is authorised to provide investment services to the Italian public, insofar as the company "FP Invest", as mentioned on the above website, is not listed in 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 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 the breach of article 18 of Legislative Decree no. 58/98 conducted via the www.fpinvest.io website and the related https://client.fpinvest.io webpage, consisting in offering and providing 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.

5 October 2023

THE CHAIRMAN
Paolo Savona