News of the week:
Save the date: 19 February 2026 - Conference "SMEs, competition and capital markets: an international comparison"
Financial education: applications for Global Money Week (16-22 March 2026)
In 2025, the stock market is at its highest, but the system remains undersized - Capital Markets in Italy report: stock market growing strongly, but structural problems remain. Private equity consolidates
EBA, ESMA and EIOPA issue advice on protecting investors from online fraud and scams related to crypto-assets and AI
Watch for scams! Financial fraud: Consob blocks 7 new websites

Consob's decisions of the week

- NEWS OF THE WEEK -

Consob, in collaboration with CETIF at the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Milan, is organising a conference entitled "SMEs, competition and capital markets: an international comparison", to be held on 19 February at 2 p.m. in the Diamante Hall of the Catholic University, Via Olona 2, Milan. Registration of participants will begin at 1:45 p.m.

The landscape of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) is extremely complex and varied and can only be fully understood through a neutral and open approach, capable of gathering different contributions and points of view: from businesses, institutions, academia and civil society.

The conference will open with institutional greetings from the Catholic University and the Director General of Consob, Dr. Luca Filippa, and with the presentation of the first year's work of the SME and Capital Markets Observatory, aimed at offering a comprehensive and detailed overview of the Italian SME ecosystem and its relationship with the capital markets. The proceedings will continue with two panel discussions. The first panel, Listing on the Italian market: the experiences of entrepreneurs, will feature the participation of several representatives from the world of SMEs and will be dedicated to sharing experiences, paths and reflections on growth processes accompanied by listing, translisting and delisting phases. The second panel, SMEs and the capital market: an international comparison, will offer a comparative perspective thanks to the contribution of international speakers, who will illustrate scenarios, approaches and key findings at an international level.

The detailed programme of the event will be announced shortly.

Attendance is free until the room capacity is reached. For organisational reasons, prior registration is required via the following link https://unicatt.webex.com/weblink/register/r806e3b6818d4deb73b39df6dd271a3fe, specifying whether you intend to participate in person or online. If participating remotely, the link for the connection will be sent after registration.

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Until 25 February 2026, applications can be submitted to propose events and initiatives as part of Global Money Week 2026, the international campaign to raise awareness of financial, insurance and social security education among young people.

Global Money Week is an annual initiative promoted by the OECD with the aim of raising awareness among the younger generation of the importance of sound financial skills for making responsible decisions. Since 2012, the event has involved over 70 million young people in 176 countries. In Italy, the organisation and coordination of activities is entrusted to the Committee for the Planning and Coordination of Financial Education Activities (Comitato Edufin).

The theme of this edition is 'Smart money talks'. Young people often find themselves facing financial choices but are not always comfortable talking about money. Sharing experiences and asking the right people questions, together with a good understanding of finance, insurance and social security, can help them develop skills, avoid mistakes and build healthy habits to achieve financial well-being.

The Edufin Committee invites associations, institutions, schools, universities and research centres, businesses, foundations, public administrations and all interested organisations to propose initiatives to raise awareness of financial, insurance and social security issues aimed at young people and the world of education.

Applications can be submitted using the form available on the website http://www.comitatoeducazionefinanziaria.gov.it. All initiatives that meet the requirements of the Global Money Week 2026 Guidelines will be accepted. Approved events will be published in the official event calendar and schools will be notified.

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In 2025, the stock market is booming and capitalisation in Italy reaches a record high of €1,077 billion, driven by rising prices, despite the number of companies listed on the regulated market falling below 200. These are some of the key figures in the Capital Markets in Italy report published by Consob.

The study highlights some of the structural dynamics of the Italian market, including, for example, overall liquidity, which has declined over the last decade: on Euronext Milan, the value traded in a year as a percentage of total capitalisation fell, on average, from almost 100% in 2015 to 88% in 2025. This is in a context of increasing market concentration, where the capitalisation of the top ten companies on Euronext Milan represents 55% of the total, compared to 37% in 2015. Since 2010, the report estimates that the impact of admissions and delistings on the Italian market has been negative by approximately £96 billion, of which £72 billion in the last five years.

In general, the stock market continues to show a size that is not in line with the potential of the country's economy: it represents only 0.8% of the global stock market, despite the fact that Italy's GDP is worth over 2% of the global total. This is the context in which private equity is developing: in Italy, investments continue to grow, with a +17% increase in the first half of 2025, despite a decline in fundraising, in line with the sharp contraction in global fundraising (-33%). Over the last ten years, the resources made available to Italian companies by private equity- s have been almost triple the proceeds of all IPOs on Euronext Milan and Euronext Growth Milan. Greater development of the capital market appears achievable in light of the high financial wealth of Italian households (€6,148 billion in June 2025).

A significant portion of this wealth (26%) is currently represented by cash and deposits: a significant value when compared with the figure for the United States (11%), but still below the euro area average (32%). The portion allocated to bonds is higher than the euro area average (8% versus 3%), while 19% is placed in insurance and pension products, which is lower than in the euro area (27%) and the United States (28%). The domestic asset management industry is still small compared to the potential of the national economy, accounting for 70% of GDP (far from the 350% in the UK, 187% in the Netherlands and 180% in France) and still limited exposure to Italian equities (7% of assets). Pension fund assets, on the other hand, represent 9% of GDP, in line with Germany and France but still undersized compared to the Netherlands (146%) and Sweden (51%).

The analyses confirm the importance of measures aimed at promoting greater development of the capital market, such as the initiatives to simplify bond prospectuses carried out by Consob in recent years: in 2025, the incidence on the total bonds issued by Italian companies and listed on domestic markets was higher than the average value recorded in the previous ten years (14% compared to 3.5%).

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A series of recommendations to protect investors from fraud and scams related to crypto-assets or carried out online, including through the use of artificial intelligence.  The European Banking Authority (EBA), the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) and the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA) have published two factsheets designed to protect consumers against online fraud and scams, including those related to crypto-assets. The factsheets also illustrate how fraudsters are making increasingly sophisticated use of artificial intelligence to make their scams more credible, through fake messages and websites, counterfeit celebrity profiles and AI-generated voices or videos.

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Consob has ordered the blocking of six new websites offering investment services without authorisation and one website (https://savitpay.com) through which financial products were offered to the public without a prospectus.

Below are the websites that Consob has ordered to be shut down:

- 'Longsharks Capital' (website https://longsharks.com and related page https://client.longsharks.com);

- "TradeOptimal" (website www.trade-optimal.com and related page https://client.trade-optimal.com);

- "ALLX" (website https://allxcapital.com and related page https://client.allxcapital.com);

- "TF Global Market" (website https://tfglobalmarket.com and related page https://client.tfglobalmarket.com);

- "MEXCFD.com" (website https://mexcfd.com and related page https://client.mexcfd.com);

- "Fil Investment Management" (website https://filinvestmentmanagement.com and related page https://client.filinvestmentmanagement.com);

- "Savitpay" (website https://savitpay.com).

This brings the total number of websites blocked by Consob since July 2019, when the Authority was given the power to order the blocking of websites of abusive financial intermediaries, to 1,562.

The Authority has exercised the powers conferred on it by the 'Growth Decree' (Law No. 58 of 28 June 2019, Article 36, paragraph 2-terdecies) to block the websites of abusive financial intermediaries, as well as the power introduced by Law No. 8 of 28 February 2020, Article 4, paragraph 3-bis, regarding the blocking of websites through which abusive offers are made.

The measures adopted by Consob are available on the website www.consob.it. Internet connectivity providers operating in Italy are currently working to block the websites. For technical reasons, the actual blocking may take a few days.

It is important that savers exercise the utmost diligence in making fully informed investment choices, adopting common sense behaviour that is essential to safeguard their savings: these include checking in advance, for websites offering investment and crypto-asset services, that the operator through which you are investing is authorised and, for offers of financial products and crypto-assets, that the prospectus or white paper has been published.

Consob also draws attention to the evolution of deceptive practices that exploit the internet to steal users' money and personal data: there has been an increase in the use of new tools, such as e-mail messages and 'cloned' websites, fake profiles of politicians and celebrities, and content generated using artificial intelligence systems - such as images, voices or videos - with the aim of inducing savers to make harmful investment choices.

To this end, Consob reminds investors that its website features a section entitled 'Beware of scams!', which provides useful information to warn investors against abusive financial initiatives.

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- Approved, pursuant to Article 102, paragraph 4, of the Consolidated Law on Finance, the document concerning the public tender offer promoted by Lonvita Spa, mandatory pursuant to Article 13 of the Articles of Association of Health Italia, on a maximum number of 59,966 ordinary shares issued by Health Italia Spa, representing 31.60% of the Issuer's share capital, at a price per share of €300.00 cum dividend. The offeror intends to delist the issuer and also plans to merge the issuer into the offeror. The offer acceptance period will begin on 9 February 2026 and end on 6 March 2026 (inclusive); any reopening of the terms will take place on 16, 17, 18, 19 and 20 March 2026 (resolution no. 23860 of 4 February 2026).

- Pursuant to Article 102, paragraph 4, of the Consolidated Law on Finance, the document concerning the mandatory takeover bid launched by Crane NXT Inspection and Tracking Technologies Spa has been approved on a maximum number of 29,215,635 shares, representing 41.13% of the share capital of Antares Vision Spa, plus a maximum of an additional 866,020 newly issued shares to service incentive plans, at a unit price of €5.00 cum dividend. The offer acceptance period will begin on 16 February 2026 and end on 6 March 2026, inclusive; any reopening of the terms, if the conditions are met, will take place on 16, 17, 18, 19 and 20 March 2026 (resolution no. 23859 of 4 February 2026).

- Approval of the prospectus relating to the admission to trading on the Euronext Milan market, organised and managed by Borsa Italiana Spa, of the shares of Fidia Spa resulting from the capital increase to service the conversion of the convertible bond cum warrant with a nominal value of €5,000,000 reserved for subscription by Global Growth Holding Limited.

Order, pursuant to Article 7-octies, letter b), of Legislative Decree No. 58 of 24 February 1998 (Consolidated Law on Finance – TUF), to put an end to the violation of Article 18 of the same TUF, committed by:

- 'Longsharks Capital' through the website https://longsharks.com and the related page https://client.longsharks.com (resolution no. 23852 of 4 February 2026);

- "TradeOptimal" through the website www.trade-optimal.com and its page https://client.trade-optimal.com (resolution no. 23851 of 4 February 2026);

- "ALLX" via the website https://allxcapital.com and its page https://client.allxcapital.com (resolution no. 23849 of 4 February 2026);

- "TF Global Market" via the website https://tfglobalmarket.com and its page https://client.tfglobalmarket.com (resolution no. 23850 of 4 February 2026);

- "MEXCFD.com" via the website https://mexcfd.com and its page https://client.mexcfd.com (resolution no. 23848 of 4 February 2026);

- "Fil Investment Management" via the website https://filinvestmentmanagement.com and its page https://client.filinvestmentmanagement.com (resolution no. 23853 of 4 February 2026).

- As a precautionary measure, the offering to the public residing in Italy of "Investment Plans" called "Equity", "Gold", "Bonds", 'Real Estate' and 'Oil and Gas', carried out by the so-called 'Savitpay', including through the website https://savitpay.com (resolution no. 23854 of 4 February 2026).

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