Resolution no. 23196

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 via the website https://finexleaders.co

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 via the website https://finexleaders.co – which is active, registered anonymously and also available in Italian – to trade shares and CFDs on indices, cryptocurrencies and commodities;

ii. in order to place such trades, users must register with the https://finexleaders.co website through a process that is also available for Italian users, open an account and deposit relevant funds;

iii. in particular, four types of account are listed on the website https://finexleaders.co, referred to as "Argento (Silver)", "Oro (Gold)", "Platino (Platinum)" and "VIP", depending on the benefits promised;

iv. as to traceability, generic references to "Finexleaders" have been found on the website https://finexleaders.co, of which one e-mail box is indicated (support@fmexleaders.co);

HAVING REGARD TO Consob Resolution no. 22990 of 31 January 2024, whereby "Finexleaders" was ordered to cease its infringement of Article 18 of the Consolidated Law on Finance carried out through the separate website https://finexleaders.eu;

WHEREAS, in addition to using a domain that is partially superimposable to the domain of the aforementioned https://finexleaders.eu website, the https://finexleaders.co website replicates the content and graphic format of the said https://finexleaders.eu website;

WHEREAS the activity carried out through the website https://finexleaders.co is deemed to constitute the provision of investment services pursuant to article 1, paragraph 5, of the Consolidated Law on Finance, since users are offered the opportunity through this domain to open a trading account and place orders to buy and/or sell financial instruments;

WHEREAS the aforementioned activity, carried out via the https://finexleaders.co website, is ongoing and is aimed at Italian investors, given that the https://finexleaders.co website is available in Italian, and there have been reports of cold calls being made to retail investors in Italy in relation to the initiatives promoted via the said website; In addition, a copy of the correspondence exchanged in Italian by e-mail between Italian retail investors and operators of the website https://finexleaders.co was acquired; financial losses have been reported by Italian retail investors in relation to the initiatives promoted on the website https://finexleaders.co; no mechanism was found to block registration by users attempting to register with the aforementioned website https://fmexleaders.co from Italy through Italian IP addresses;

WHEREAS the transactions recorded on the website https://finexleaders.co cannot be attributed to any entity authorised to provide investment services to the Italian public, given that "Finexleaders" which is mentioned on the website https://finexleaders.co, is not authorised to provide investment services to the Italian public, since it does not appear on the register kept by Consob pursuant to Article 20 of the Consolidated Law on Finance;

HAVING REGARD TO the requirement to hold a relevant licence to provide investment services and activities as per 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 must 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://finexleaders.co website, consisting in the offering 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 from the communication.

10 July 2024

THE CHAIRMAN
Paolo Savona