RESOLUTION no. 22987

Order, pursuant to article 7-octies, paragraph 1, letter b) of Legislative Decree no. 58/1998 (“Consolidated Law on Finance”) to cease the breach of article 18 of the Consolidated Law on Finance carried out via the https://nextgentrading.io website and its https://client.nextgentrading.io and https://webtrader.nextgentrading.io pages

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://nextgentrading.io website - which is active, also available in Italian and registered anonymously - to trade in forex and CFDs on currencies, cryptocurrencies, indices, shares and commodities;

ii. in order to carry out such trades, users must register with the https://nextgentrading.io website - via a procedure that is also available for Italian users on the https://client.nextgentrading.io webpage - open a trading account and access the personal area of the website where the functions to deposit and withdraw funds from the trading account are available; it is possible to gain access to the trading platform through the additional https://webtrader.nextgentrading.io domain;

iii. as to traceability, the "Terms and Conditions" of the website contain references to "Nextgentrading"; the email address: support@nextgentrading.website is also indicated.

WHEREAS the activity carried out via the https://nextgentrading.io website and the https://client.nextgentrading.io and https://webtrader.nextgentrading.io webpages constitutes the provision of investment services, as referred to in Article 1, paragraph 5, of the Consolidated Law on Finance, since users are offered the opportunity via the aforementioned domains to open a trading account and place orders to buy and/or sell financial instruments;

WHEREAS the above described activity, carried out via the https://nextgentrading.io website and its https://client.nextgentrading.io and https://webtrader.nextgentrading.io pages, is still ongoing and is aimed at Italian investors, given that the https://nextgentrading.io website and its https://client.nextgentrading.io and https://webtrader.nextgentrading.io webpages are also available in Italian and there have been reports of cold calls being made to retail investors in Italy regarding the initiatives promoted via the https://nextgentrading.io website. Furthermore, no mechanism aimed at blocking registration by users attempting to register with the https://nextgentrading.io website from Italy via Italian IP addresses was found;

WHEREAS “Nextgentrading” is not authorised to provide investment services to the Italian public, since it 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 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 infringement of Article 18 of Legislative Decree no. 58/98 carried out through the https://nextgentrading.io website and its https://client.nextgentrading.io and https://webtrader.nextgentrading.io pages constituted by the offer and 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.

31 January 2024

THE CHAIRMAN
Paolo Savona