Consob is submitting to the market a Consultation on proposals to redefine the supervisory fee payable by entities carrying out securitization transactions and crowdfunding service providers, made necessary as a result of changes in the relevant regulatory framework, effective as of January 2024.

Consob, in Resolution No. 22915 of 6 December 2023, determined, pursuant to Article No. 40 of Law No. 724/1994, for the year 2024, the entities required to contribute, the extent of the contribution due, as well as the manner and terms of payment of this contribution.

In particular, for securitization transactions in the current Contribution Scheme, Securitization Special Purpose Entities (SSPEs), originators, promoters and original lenders subject to Consob supervision pursuant to Article No. 4-septies.2 paragraph 6 of Legislative Decree No. 58/1998 are subject to the payment of the supervisory contribution. The pricing criterion adopted provides for the payment of a fixed amount per capita.

The Commission intends to redefine the contribution case by providing that the entity designated under Article No. 7 paragraph 2 of Regulation (EU) 2017/2402 (SECR), on which it is incumbent to fulfil the information obligations set forth in paragraph No. 1, first subparagraph, letters a), b), d), e), f) and g) of the same Regulation, and that the amount of the contribution, always calculated as a fixed amount, be diversified to take into account the different supervision carried out on the transactions under Consob's responsibility, pursuant to Articles Nos. 6 to 9 of the SECR (Article No. 4 septies.2, paragraph 6(b) of Legislative Decree No. 58/1998), compared to STS securitizations (Article No. 4 septies.2, paragraph 6(c) of Legislative Decree No. 58/1998).

Regarding crowdfunding service providers, with the enactment of Law No. 238 of 23 December 2021 (European Law 2019-2020) and Legislative Decree No. 30 of 10 March 2023, the primary legislation was adapted to Directive (EU) 2020/1504 and Regulation (EU) 2020/1503, respectively, on European crowdfunding service providers for businesses. Specifically, the Directive and Regulation supplemented the relevant regulations by allowing crowdfunding service providers to simultaneously promote both lending and financial instrument offerings (lending-based crowdfunding and investment-based crowdfunding). With Resolution No. 22720 of 1 June 2023, Consob adopted the Regulation on crowdfunding services in implementation of Regulation (EU) 2020/1503 and Articles Nos. 4-sexies.1 and 100-ter of the Consolidated Law on Finance (Tuf).

For the purpose of making the category subject to contribution, it is necessary to amend the regulations referred to the current Contribution Regime, punctually defining the subjective scope of application of the contribution under the new rules.

Regarding the charging criterion, in view of the start-up phase of the adoption of the new regulations, which does not allow to date to have available quantitative data referring to the activity (such as revenues or turnover), the fee will be commensurate with the number of authorized crowdfunding services and providing that the fee will be increased by an additional amount if the provider is also authorized to carry out individual management of loan portfolios.

Comments to the consultation paper should be received by 2 August 2024 online through SIPE - Integrated External System, or, at the following address: Consob - Divisione Strategie Regolamentari (Regulatory Strategies Division) - Via G. B. Martini, no. 3 - 00198 Rome.