Resolution no. 23628 of 2/7/2024

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 www.indexswiss.com website and its page www.indexswiss.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. users are offered the opportunity via the www.indexswiss.com website – which is active and also available in Italian through a translation system incorporated into the website – to trade CFDs on currencies, indices, commodities and shares;

ii. to place such trades, users must register with the website www.indexswiss.com - through a process that is also available for users connected from Italy/through Italian IP addresses, on the page https://client.indexswiss.com, connected to the website www.indexswiss.com and which is directly accessible from the homepage of the website www.indexswiss.com itself - to open an account and deposit the relevant funds;

iii. more specifically, four types of account are listed on the www.indexswiss.com website, referred to as "Bronzo (Bronze)", "Argento (Silver)", "Oro (Gold)" and "Platino Oro (Platinum Gold)", depending on the minimum deposit required and the benefits promised;

iv. regarding traceability, the website www.indexswiss.com contains references to "IndexSwiss", with an email address provided (support@indexswiss.com);

WHEREAS the activity carried out through the www.indexswiss.com website and relevant https://client.indexswiss.com webpage constitutes the provision of investment services, within the meaning of Article 1, paragraph 5 of the Consolidated Law on Finance, insofar as users are offered the opportunity, through the aforementioned domains, of opening a trading account and placing orders to buy and/or sell financial instruments;

WHEREAS the aforementioned activity, carried out via the www.indexswiss.com website and its https://client.indexswiss.com page, is ongoing and is aimed at Italian investors, given that the www.indexswiss.com website is available in Italian through a machine translation system incorporated into the same website; with reference to initiatives promoted through the www.indexswiss.com website, there have been reports of cold calling and other forms of interaction to solicit investments from Italian retail investors; complaints were received from Italian retail investors who claimed that they were unable to get back the money they had invested to trade through the www.indexswiss.com website; on the saidwww.indexswiss.com website, there are no mechanisms aimed at limiting and/or preventing registration on the same domain by users connected to the web from Italy/through Italian IP addresses;

WHEREAS the transactions recorded on the website www.indexswiss.com and on its page https://client.indexswiss.com are not attributable 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 infringement of Article 18 of Legislative Decree no. 58/98 carried out through the www.indexswiss.com website and its respective https://client.indexswiss.com webpage, consisting of 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 of the date of service.

THE CHAIRMAN
Paolo Savona