Weekly newsletter year XXXI, No. 20, 3 June 2025 - CONSOB AND ITS ACTIVITIES
Newsletter
News of the week:
CONSOB's annual meeting with the financial market
Save the date: 3 July 2025 - Corporate governance in Italy. Analysis of the tools for enhancing voting rights
ESMA urges digital platforms to tackle online scams
IOSCO calls out digital platforms on online scams
MiCA, Consob implements guidelines issued by ESMA
Watch for scams! Financial fraud: Consob blacks out 8 unauthorised websites
Commission decisions
Management decisions
N.B. measures adopted by Consob are published in the electronic Bulletin and, where envisaged, also in the Gazzetta Ufficiale. This newsletter summarises the more important or general measures and their disclosure here is therefore merely to update readers on Commission activities.
- NEWS OF THE WEEK -
On Friday 20 June 2025, CONSOB's annual meeting with the financial market will be held. The meeting is at 11:00 in Milan in Piazza Affari at the headquarters of Borsa Italiana in Palazzo Mezzanotte. The meeting will bring the celebrations for the 50th Anniversary of the Authority to a close. The live stream will be provided.
CONSOB, the Italian Committee for Corporate Governance and Assonime present the meeting on Corporate governance in Italy - Analysis of voting rights enhancement mechanisms, which will be held on 3 July from 10:00 am, at the CONSOB Auditorium, Via C. Monteverdi 35, Rome.
During the meeting, the following will be presented:
- the CONSOB Report on the corporate governance of Italian listed companies, which provides evidence on ownership structures, corporate boards, annual general meetings and related party transactions, based on data obtained from supervisory statistical reports and public information;
- the Report of the Italian Corporate Governance Committee, which assesses the state of implementation of the Corporate Governance Code and makes recommendations to companies for its more effective application;
- the Report of Assonime-Emittenti Titoli, which provides an in-depth analysis of the corporate governance of Italian listed companies in the light of the guidelines set out in the Corporate Governance Code.
The detailed programme of the event will be available soon.
In-person participation is free until the capacity of the room is reached. Please register your participation at: https://www.consob.it/web/consob-and-its-activities/enrollments.
The event will also be available for streaming at the following link: https://youtube.com/live/wjRNajIjOIM.
On 28 May 2025, ESMA, the European Securities and Markets Authority, urged digital platforms – X (formerly Twitter), Meta, TikTok, Alphabet, Telegram, Snap, Amazon, Apple, Google and Reddit – to proactively take concrete steps to prevent the spread of unauthorised financial advertising.
In a series of letters sent to the sector's main operators, ESMA highlighted how the increase in online scams targeting retail investors poses a significant risk, both to individual investors and to confidence in the financial system as a whole.
The Authority highlighted that fraudulent operators use digital platforms to promote unauthorised financial services, leading investors to interact with unregulated entities. This results in financial losses and reputational damage for the entire sector.
For more information, see ESMA's official press release: https://www.esma.europa.eu/press-news/esma-news/esma-urges-social-media-companies-tackle-unauthorised-financial-ads.
ESMA's initiative is part of a broader international cooperation effort, alongside the recent actions undertaken by IOSCO, the International Organization of Securities Commissions, to tackle the problems linked to online illicit financial activities.
The International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) is urging digital platforms to make a firm commitment to tackling online financial damage.
In a statement published on 21 May 2025, IOSCO emphatically urged major online platform providers to bolster measures to prevent the fraudulent use of their services to the detriment of retail investors, in line with national regulations.
The growing use of mobile apps, social media and search engines to promote and buy financial products and services has opened up new opportunities, but also new risks. Scams based on sponsored and user-generated content are a growing threat, made worse by their cross-border nature.
IOSCO therefore encourages platform providers – search engines, social networks, app stores – to strengthen their preventive due diligence on advertisers, connect to the IOSCO global portal against financial fraud (I-SCAN - International Securities and Commodities Alerts Network), and develop effective tools to promptly identify and remove illegal content, in cooperation with national authorities.
Consob has implemented the guidelines issued by the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) on certain aspects of the suitability requirements and format of the periodic statement for portfolio management activities under the Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) Regulation (Consob notice of 28 May 2025).
The guidelines are available on ESMA’s website "Guidelines on certain aspects of the suitability requirements and format of the periodic statement for portfolio management activities under MiCA", and on Consob’s official website, along with the full text of the "Final report" (containing the summary of the responses to the consultation and ESMA’s subsequent comments), which are helpful to ensure the correct application of the guidelines.
Consob has ordered the black-out of 8 new websites promoting or providing financial services illegally.
The Authority availed itself of the powers deriving from the "Decreto crescita" ("Growth Decree"; Law no. 58 of 28 June 2019, Article no. 36, paragraph 2-terdecies), on the basis of which Consob can order Internet service providers to block access from Italy to websites offering financial services without the proper authorization.
Below are the websites Consob has ordered to be blacked out:
- Pim Mtf Markets Limited (websites www.pimmtf.vip, www.pimcmtf.vip, www.pimmtf.ai and www.pimmtf.ltd);
- "Peaktradeoption" (website https://peaktradeoption.com);
- "Stockwisse" (website www.stockwisse.co and related page https://clientzone.stockwisse.co);
- "Finanza Expert" (website https://finanzaexpert.io and related pages https://clients.finanzaexpert.io and https://trading.finanzaexpert.io) ;
- "SteTrading" (website https://www.stetrading.online).
The number of websites blacked out since July 2019, when Consob got the power to order that the websites of fraudulent financial intermediaries be blacked out, has thus risen to 1336.
The measures adopted by Consob can be consulted on the website www.consob.it.
The black-out of these websites by Internet service providers operating on Italian territory is ongoing. For technical reasons, it can take several days for the black-out to come into effect.
Consob draws investors' attention to the importance of adopting the greatest diligence to make informed investment choices, adopting common sense behaviors, essential to safeguard their savings: these include, for websites that offer financial services, checking in advance that the operator with whom they are investing is authorized, and, for offers of financial products, that a prospectus has been published.
To this end, Consob would remind you that on the website www.consob.it there is a section on the homepage, "Watch for Scams!", providing useful information to warn investors against financially unauthorized initiatives.
Consob has authorised the publication of the Registration Document, the Information Note and the Summary (collectively the Prospectus) relating to the offer and admission to trading on the Euronext Milan regulated market, organised and operated by Borsa Italiana, of newly issued ordinary shares of Italgas, resulting from a capital increase through a rights offering, for a maximum total amount of EUR 1,020 million, including share premium, approved by Italgas's extraordinary shareholders' meeting on 10 April 2025.
The outsourcing has been authorised to Euronext Group companies, pursuant to Article 38 of Consob Market Regulation no. 20249/2017 and Article 6 of Delegated Regulation (EU) no. 2017/584, of the technical and operational management of corporate actions for financial instruments admitted to the ETFPlus market (ETFs, ETCs, ETNs) that are also admitted to one or more of the Euronext Legacy Markets (decision of 28 May 2025).
Order, pursuant to Article 7-octies, letter b) of Italian Legislative Decree no. 58 of 24 February 1998 (Consolidated Law on Finance) to cease infringement of Article 18 of said Consolidated Law on Finance, put in place by:
- Pim Mtf Markets Limited via the www.pimmtf.vip, www.pimcmtf.vip, www.pimmtf.ai and www.pimmtf.ltd websites (resolution no. 23577 of 28 May 2025);
- "Peaktradeoption" via the https://peaktradeoption.com website (resolution no. 23578 of 28 May 2025);
- "Stockwisse" via the www.stockwisse.co website and its https://clientzone.stockwisse.co page (resolution no. 23575 of 28 May 2025);
- "Finanza Expert" via the https://finanzaexpert.io website and its https://clients.finanzaexpert.io and https://trading.finanzaexpert.io pages (resolution no. 23579 of 28 May 2025);
- "SteTrading" via the https://www.stetrading.online website (resolution no. 23576 of 28 May 2025).
The Head of Consob's Intermediary Supervision and Investor Protection Division has accepted the request by 1Oak Capital Ltd for forfeiture due to express waiver of the authorisation to provide all authorised investment services with consequent cancellation from the register of third-country companies other than banks, pursuant to Article 20, paragraph 1 of the Consolidated Law on Finance. The full text of management decision no. 134 of 21 May 2025 is available on the www.consob.it website.
CONSOB INFORMS (Rome Tribunal Registration no. 250 of 30/10/2013) Chief Editor: Manlio Pisu - Editorial board: Antonella Nibaldi (coordinator), Claudia Amadio, Riccardo Carriero, Luca Cecchini, Laura Ferri, Chiara Tomaiuoli, Alfredo Gloria, Ilaria Fabbiani - Address: CONSOB Via G. B. Martini, 3 - 00198 Rome - telephone: (06) 84771 - fax: (06) 8417707. Documents or reports can be submitted via the interactive section of the web site www.consob.it, where CONSOB INFORMA can also be consulted via the "newsletter" link.