Weekly newsletter year XXXI, No. 16, 5 May 2025 - CONSOB AND ITS ACTIVITIES
Newsletter
News of the week:
CONSOB's annual meeting with the financial market
Digital finance, Consob implements ESMA guidelines
Double-digit growth in 2024 of the equity component in intermediaries' portfolios and deposits - The data in the latest Consob Statistical Bulletin
Watch for scams! Financial fraud: Consob blacks out 4 unauthorised websites
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 has implemented the guidelines issued by the ESMA (European Securities and Markets Authority) on digital finance with reference to the Regulation on crypto-asset markets (Mica).
In more detail: Consob has implemented the guidelines
- on procedures and policies, including customer rights, in the context of crypto-asset transfer services, pursuant to the Mica Regulation on the protection of investors, integrating them into its supervisory practices (Notice of 30 April 2025).
- on situations where it is considered that a third-country firm seeks to procure customers established or resident in the EU and on supervisory practices aimed at identifying and preventing the circumvention of the criteria relating to the exemption by exclusive initiative of customers under the Mica, integrating them into its supervisory practices (Notice of 30 April 2025).
Both Guidelines are available 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.
Double-digit growth in 2024 of the equity component in Italian intermediaries' portfolios and deposits. The presence of equity securities of companies listed or traded on the Milan Stock Exchange has increased by 20.8% compared to 2023. The increase in investment funds (UCITS) was also robust (+11.5%). The trend is in line with the favourable performance of the price lists as well as the lower attractiveness of fixed-income financial instruments (government bonds and securities), due to the fall in interest rates. At the end of 2024, the value of the financial instruments held by Italian intermediaries reached EUR 4,052 billion with an annual increase of 3.4%.
These are some of the most important data contained in Consob's Statistical Bulletin no. 26 - Intermediaries.
In 2024, the volumes of assets related to the provision of investment services were all positive: the placement of financial instruments rose by 10.1%; trading on own account by 74.5%; the execution of orders by 10%; the receipt and transmission of orders by 7.8%. Gross premiums deriving from the placement of insurance products with mainly financial content, distributed in Italy by intermediaries supervised by Consob, also showed strong growth (+32.6%), due in particular to the increase in unit-linked policies (+33.5%).
At the end of the year, assets managed by Italian intermediaries amounted to EUR 1,621 billion, up 7.5% on 2023. Growth was mainly supported by individual asset management (+4.4%), which represents 65.3% of the total, and by open (+22.8%) and closed (+9.1%) Italian UCITS.
In 2024, the net inflow of open UCITS under Italian law was positive, rising by around EUR 48.6 billion.
The net profit of the Italian AMCs exceeded EUR 1,865 million at the end of 2024, up EUR 400 million on the previous year. The result is mainly attributable to the growth in net fee and commission income (EUR 625.7 million), which more than offset the increase in operating costs (EUR 175.3 million) and taxes (EUR 103.1 million).
Italian investment firms, on the other hand, reported a net profit of EUR 98.7 million, up EUR 26.6 million on 2023, thanks to the increase in the net result of trading (EUR 22 million) and the decrease in operating costs (EUR 32 million), which offset the decrease in net commissions (EUR 32.5 million).
Consob has ordered the black-out of 4 new websites through which services for crypto-activities are abusively provided.
The Authority made use of the powers introduced by the MiCAR (Regulation (EU) 2023/1114 and Legislative Decree No. 129 of 5 September 2024) regarding the black out of websites through which crypto currency services are provided to Italian savers without the prescribed authorisations.
Below are the websites Consob has ordered to be blacked out:
- “Egplus.vip” (website https://egplus.vip);
- “Egalite.bond” (website https://egalite.bond);
- Arbismart UAB (website https://arbismart.com and related page https://dashboard.arbismart.com);
- “Blockbyteq” (website https://blockbyteq.top).
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 1304.
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 behaviours, 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 or the white paper 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.
Order, pursuant to Article 94(1)(h) of Regulation (EU) 2023/1114 ("MiCAR") and Article 4(1) of Italian Legislative Decree no. 129/2024 to cease the infringement of Article 59 of the MiCAR carried out by:
- “Egplus.vip”, website https://egplus.vip (resolution no. 23541 of 30 April 2025);
- “Egalite.bond”, website https://egalite.bond (resolution no. 23539 of 30 April 2025);
- Arbismart UAB, website https://arbismart.com and related page https://dashboard.arbismart.com (resolution no. 23540 of 30 April 2025);
- “Blockbyteq”, website https://blockbyteq.top (resolution no. 23538 of 30 April 2025).
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.