Resolution no. 22928

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 https://degirocfd.com and its page https://client.degirocfd.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 checks on the web, it emerged that:

i) potential investors are offered the opportunity through the https://degirocfd.com website – which is active, partially available in Italian and registered anonymously – to trade in derivatives such as Contracts for Difference (CFDs) on assets such as currencies, cryptocurrencies, indices and commodities, subject to registering and opening a trading account;

ii) to carry out the transactions, users must register with the https://degirocfd.com website, following a procedure that is also available to users connected from Italy, and open a trading account;

iii) after registering, users can access the reserved area of the website available at the address: https://client.degirocfd.com, where, among other things, they can deposit funds and access the trading platform;

iv) as to traceability, the website contains generic references to the "degirocfd Group" without providing an office address;

WHEREAS the activity carried out via the https://degirocfd.com website and the page https://client.degirocfd.com is to be considered as provision of investment services, as referred to in Article 1, paragraph 5, of the Consolidated Law on Finance, 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 https://degirocfd.com and the page https://client.degirocfd.com, is still ongoing and is aimed at Italian investors, insofar as said website is partially available in Italian, while the page https://client.degirocfd.com is available in Italian. Furthermore, there have been reports of cold calling of Italian consumers and no mechanism was found aimed at blocking registration by users attempting to register with this website from Italy/via Italian IP addresses. In addition, complaints were received from Italian retail investors who claimed that they were unable to get their money back to trade on the website https://degirocfd.com;

WHEREAS the https://degirocfd.com website and the https://client.degirocfd.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 commercial 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 activities 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 provisions of Article 7-octies, letter b) of the Consolidated Law on Finance - "Powers to counteract unauthorised provision of investment services" - pursuant to which 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 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 breach of Article 18 of Legislative Decree no. 58/98 conducted via the website https://degirocfd.com and the page https://client.degirocfd.com, 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.

6 December 2023

THE CHAIRMAN
Paolo Savona