Newsletter - CONSOB AND ITS ACTIVITIES
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News of the week:
Watch for scams! Financial fraud: Consob blacks out 5 more abusive websites
Save The Date: 12 April 2024 - Italian Dbt Capital Market – Initiatives to improve competitiveness and market access
Save The Date: 18 April 2024 - Alternative Financial Dispute Resolution Scheme report on the activity in 2023
Save The Date: 9 May 2024 - The tokenisation of financial instruments - Outlook for the Italian market
Regulation on the authorisation and supervision of entities entitled to bid on the auction market for emissions allowances: Consultation Paper
Voluntary takeover bid on Tod's Spa: Consob approves the bid document
Consob approves the amendments to the rules of the Markets
The web page dedicated to the prospectuses referred to in Regulation (EU) 2017/1129 is available on the Consob website -
News of the week:
Watch for scams! Financial fraud: Consob blacks out 7 more unauthorised websites
SAVE THE DATE Friday 22 March 2024: Seminar on Governance, Gender and Climate as part of the Academic Cycle dedicated to "New Frontiers in financial markets and financial regulation"
SAVE THE DATE Thursday, 9 May 2024: Seminar entitled "Tokenisation of financial instruments - outlook for the Italian market"
Starting today, 18 March, Global Money Week
Appointment of Commissioners Mosca and Cornelli to the Technical Committee for the reform of the TUF
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News of the week:
Juventus Football Club Spa: Consob approves the prospectus for the capital increase and admission to listing of the new shares
The audit firms' control sheet updated for the annual financial reports
LVenture Group Spa: Consob approves the prospectus relating to the admission to listing of the new shares
Save the date Friday 22 March 2024: Seminar on Governance, Gender and Climate as part of the academic cycle dedicated to "new frontiers in financial markets and financial -
News of the week:
Watch for scams! Financial fraud: Consob blacks out 6 more unauthorised websites
TODAY 4 MARCH 2024: Brick Walls and Glass Ceilings - Female leadership and the ESG mission
Dimensionality reduction techniques to support insider trading detection: new Fintech Research Paper published
Consob – Bank of Italy Memorandum of Understanding on Issuers
Assignments of office
Commission decisionsN.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.Consob has ordered the blackout of 6 new websites that abusively offer financial services/financial products: 5 abusive financial intermediation sites and 1 site through which financial products are offered without a prospectus.
The Authority availed itself of the powers deriving from the "growth decree" (Law no. 58 of 28 June 2019, article 36, paragraph 2-terdecies) regarding the blackout of the sites 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 blackout of the website through which the abusive offer is made.
Below are the sites Consob has ordered to be blacked out:
Ether Limited (website https://ethertrader.cc and its page https://client.ethertrades.cc);
- Aegion Group Ltd (website www.safecap.io and its page https://client.safecap.io);
- Investment Analysts (website https://investment-analysts.co and its page https://client.investment-analysts.co);
- Fidelitycfd (website www.fidelitycfd.com and its page https://wt.fidelitycfd.com);
- Mex-Fx (website https://mex-fx.com and its page https://client.mex-fx.com);
- Ultraford (website https://ultraford.cc).
The number of sites blacked out since July 2019, when Consob was given the power to order the black-out of websites of fraudulent financial intermediaries, has thus risen to 1035.
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 in order to make informed investment choices, adopting common sense behaviours, essential to safeguard one's savings: these include, for websites that offer financial services, checking in advance that the operator with whom you are investing is authorised, and, for offers of financial products, that a prospectus has been published.
Please note, there is a section on the homepage of the www.consob.it website, entitled "Watch for Scams!", which provides useful information warning investors about fraudulent financial schemes.
Today, Monday, March 4, from 10:00 to 13:00, the conference "Brick Walls and Glass Ceilings - Female Leadership and the ESG Mission" organised by Consob will be held at the Consob Auditorium in Rome, Via Claudio Monteverdi 35.
Maurizio Leo (Vice-Minister of Economy and Finance) will open the conference.
The presentations on Female Leadership, introduced by Gabriella Alemanno (Consob Commissioner), will follow including those by: Mirja Cartia d'Asero (CEO of Il Sole 24 Ore); Maria Laura Garofalo (CEO of Garofalo Health Care); Elena Patrizia Goitini (CEO of BNL BNP Paribas); Nicoletta Spagnoli (Chair & CEO of Luisa Spagnoli); Annalisa Stupenengo (CEO of Landi Renzo Group).
Subsequently, regarding the ESG Mission, introduced by Silvia Ulissi (Consob Corporate Governance Division), presentations will be given by the sustainability managers: Maria Enrica Danese (TIM); Giulia Genuardi (ENEL); Liana Mazzarella (Banco BPM Group); Francesca Rambaudi (Amplifon); Lucia Silva (Assicurazioni Generali). Chiara Mosca (Consob Commissioner) will make the concluding remarks.
Andrea Cabrini (Director of Class CNBC) will moderate the event.
The publication of the Fintech Research Paper "Dimensionality reduction techniques to support insider trading detection", expands on the research initiated by Consob in collaboration with the Scuola Normale Superiore of Pisa on the solutions that new technologies, based on AI applications, may offer to support market supervision. More specifically, the study - based on an anonymised data set - addresses the problem of identifying potential cases of insider trading and proposes a different methodological approach compared to previous studies that have made use of unsupervised machine learning techniques; in this case, in fact, the technique of decomposition and subsequent reconstruction of a time series sequence of data is applied through the analysis of the "principal components" (PCA, Principal Component Analysis) and the use of autoencoders, in relation to the trading positions of groups of investors in a given share near to a price sensitive event.
In intuitive terms, the logic that is followed in the procedure for identifying anomalous behaviour by investors considers the normal position reconstructed through the PCA technique as representative of normal behaviour. Any deviation in the behaviour of a single investor from the normal behaviour reconstructed during the observation period (which is higher than a certain sensitivity threshold) is reported by the algorithm as anomalous and potentially worthy of further investigation through "traditional" investigation techniques. A particularly significant result of this study is the satisfactory convergence of the results obtained with those derived from the application of the unsupervised machine learning techniques described in the previous paper "A machine learning approach to support decision in insider trading detection", which was also the result of the cooperation between the Consob and the prestigious Scuola Normale Superiore of Pisa.
The Commissione Nazionale per le Società e la Borsa (Consob) and the Bank of Italy signed a Memorandum of Understanding to strengthen their cooperation with regard to issuers supervised by Consob that, at the same time, fall within the scope of direct supervision of the Bank of Italy.
Also taking into account the macroeconomic environment and market developments, the Protocol provides for the two Authorities to exchange a broad set of information regarding, in particular, prudential supervision, anti-money laundering supervision and crisis management, by the Bank of Italy, as well as that deriving from the supervisory activities that Consob carries out regarding ownership structure, governance, financial and non-financial information, and on the entities in charge of the statutory audit.
The agreement also provides for cooperation in the area of inspection and the exchange of communications and information when Consob initiates proceedings for the approval of prospectuses (or documents for exemption from the prospectus publication requirement) and documents relating to takeover and/or exchange bids involving entities supervised by the Bank of Italy.
The Commission has assigned to Francesco Pirro, starting from 1 March 2024, the office of member of the High–Level Group on DORA Oversight (DORA HLGO) and the office of coordinator for Consob's participation in projects under the European Blockchain Regulatory Sandbox (EBS). By the same resolution (resolution no. 23023 of 28 February 2024), the Commission confirmed the assignment to Pirro of the office of Consob's Digital Transition Manager, which was already granted by resolution no. 21787 of 7 April 2021.
As from the same date of 1 March 2024:
- Francesco Pirro ceases to be Head of the Information Infrastructure Division that had been assigned to him by resolution no. 21417 of 25 June 2020;
- Nicola De Caro is assigned the office of Head of the Information Infrastructure Division (resolution no. 23024 of 28 February 2024).
Combating market abuse (art. 7-octies of the Consolidated Law on Finance)Order, pursuant to art. 7-octies, letter b) of Italian Legislative Decree no. 58 of 24 February 1998 (Consolidated Law on Finance) to cease infringement of art. 18 of Consolidated Law on Finance, put in place by:
- Ether Limited via the website https://ethertrader.cc and its page https://client.ethertrades.cc (resolution no. 23026 of 28 February 2024);
- Aegion Group Ltd via the website www.safecap.io and its page https://client.safecap.io (resolution no. 23030 of 28 February 2024);
- Investment Analysts (website https://investment-analysts.co and its page https://client.investment-analysts.co (resolution no. 23027 of 28 February 2024);
- Fidelitycfd via the website www.fidelitycfd.com and its page https://wt.fidelitycfd.com (resolution no. 23029 of 28 February 2024);
- Mex-Fx via the website https://mex-fx.com and its page https://client.mex-fx.com (resolution no. 23028 of 28 February 2024);
- Ultraford via the website https://ultraford.cc (resolution no. 23025 of 28 February 2024).
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, Domenico Conti, Laura Ferri, Chiara Tomaiuoli, Alfredo Gloria - 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. -
News of the week:
Watch for scams! Financial fraud: Consob blacks out 5 more unauthorised websites
Bond issues: shorter timeframes, cost-cutting and requests in English. These are the latest changes from Consob regarding prospectuses
New guidelines from ESMA on the recovery and resolution of central counterparties (CCPRRRs), OTC derivatives, central counterparties and trade repositories (EMIR)
Commission decisionsN.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.Consob has ordered the black-out of 5 new websites that offer financial services illegally.
The commission availed itself of the new powers resulting from the "Decreto Crescita" ("Growth Decree"; Law no. 58 of 28 June 2019, Article 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 authorisation.
Below are the sites Consob has ordered to be blacked out:
- Tcrinvest (https://tcrinvest.net website and its https://account.tcrinvest.net and https://trading.tcrinvest.net pages).
- Interactive (www.intr-active.com website and its https://intr-active.solutions and https://clientportalpage.intr-active.com pages);
- Capitalwealthmanagement.co (website www.capitalwealthmanagement.co and its page https://clientzone.capitalwealthmanagement.co);
- BGB Partners (https://bgbpartners.cm website and its https://client.bgbpartners.cm and https://webtrader.bgbpartners.cm pages)
- FDXCrypto (https://colmex247.io website and its https://client.colmex247.io and https://webtrader.colmex247.io pages).
The number of sites blacked out since July 2019, when Consob was given the power to order the black-out of websites of fraudulent financial intermediaries, has thus risen to 1029.
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 in order to make informed investment choices, adopting common sense behaviours, essential to safeguard one’s savings: these include, for websites that offer financial services, checking in advance that the operator with whom you are investing is
authorised and, for offers of financial products, that a prospectus has been published.
Please note, there is a section on the homepage of the www.consob.it website, entitled "Watch for Scams!", which provides useful information warning investors about fraudulent financial schemes.
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Consob has also prohibited, pursuant to Article 99, paragraph 1, letter c) of Italian Legislative Decree 58/1998 ("Consolidated Law on Finance"), the offering to the public residing in Italy of investments of a financial nature promoted by Digital Trust CSP Fzco, including via the www.doublefinance.io website (resolution no. 23011 of 20 February 2024). The offer had already been suspended as a precautionary measure with resolution no. 22900 of 22 November 2023.
Shorter timeframes, cost-cutting and requests for approval in English as well: these are the three main changes from Consob regarding prospectuses for bond issues.
The innovations are part of a broader effort to streamline and simplify regulatory requirements that Consob continues to develop with the aim of improving the attractiveness of the Italian financial market, whilst at the same time maintaining safeguards to protect savers and investors. The initiative meets the expectations of market participants and reduces the burden on them.
To ensure greater certainty regarding the timing of the investigation process, in line with European best practices, Consob's offices will provide initial informal feedback within two working days of receiving the request for approval, on the main issues that may arise from an overall check on the draft prospectus. The request for additional information will normally be formalised within six working days from submission of the request for approval of the prospectus, which is reduced to five working days for offers aimed at institutional investors (see Notice of non-equity prospectuses' scrutiny times).
With regard to costs, the supervisory contributions in force since last January have been significantly reduced, both for offers aimed at institutional investors and for those aimed at retail savers. In the first case, the amounts are no longer variable based on the value of the offer, but fixed, predetermined and known in advance. In the second case, the variable amount in relation to the value of the offer is halved compared to 2023, also providing for a lower maximum ceiling.
The use of English, already permitted in Italy for prospectuses, is now also extended to requests for approval of prospectuses, which may be submitted, using standard formats in line with common practices throughout the EU. The resolution amending the Issuers' Regulation was published on 20 February, after the consultation with the market on these issues was closed on 29 January.
In this respect, operators are reminded of the usefulness of applying the Guidelines for the simplification of prospectuses, recently issued by the Committee of Market Operators and Investors (COMI) set up at Consob.
Furthermore, other changes aimed at reducing approval times for prospectuses are coming soon.
In fact, Consob will launch a public consultation, to submit the idea to the market's attention, of attributing the final act of approval of prospectuses and any supplements to the competent offices themselves and no longer to the Commission, thereby further shortening the authorisation process.
Consob and the Bank of Italy, as the competent Authorities for the supervision of the Italian central counterparties, comply with the "Guidelines on the consistent application of the conditions for using early intervention measures (Article 18, paragraph 8 of the CCPRRRs)", the "Guidelines on the application of situations in which a central counterparty should be considered to be in serious difficulties or at risk of collapsing (Article 22, paragraph 6 of the CCPRRRs)" and the "Guidelines laying down further specifications for temporary restrictions in the event of a significant event other than a breach pursuant to Article 45 bis of the EMIR", issued by the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), by incorporating them into their respective supervisory practices (Consob Notice of 20 February 2024).
Prospectuses- The marketing in Italy of the units of the unreserved, closed-end, AIF (alternative investment fund) "FAI Private Markets Insight Fund II" has been authorised, pursuant to Article 44 of Italian Legislative Decree no. 58/1998, operated by Fideuram SGR Spa (decision of 20 February 2024).
-The supplement to the registration document of Banco Bpm Spa, approved on 8 June 2023, drawn up pursuant to Article 10, paragraph 1, and 23 of Regulation (EU) 2017/1129 has been approved (decision of 20 February 2024).
Registers and lists- Innexta Scrl, based in Milan, has been authorised pursuant to Article 4-sexies.1 of Italian Legislative Decree no. 58/1998 and Article 12 of Regulation (EU) 2020/1503, as a crowdfunding service provider to provide the crowdfunding service referred to in Article 2, paragraph 1, letter a), sub ii), of Regulation (EU) 2020/1503 consisting in the placement without an irrevocable commitment and the receipt and transmission of client orders relating to securities and instruments admitted for crowdfunding purposes issued by project owners or special purpose vehicles (resolution no. 23015 of 20 February 2024).
WeAreStarting Srl, based in Bergamo, has been authorised pursuant to Article 4-sexies.1 of Italian Legislative Decree no. 58/1998 and Article 12 of Regulation (EU) 2020/1503, as a crowdfunding service provider to provide the crowdfunding service referred to in Article 2, paragraph 1, letter a), sub ii), of Regulation (EU) 2020/1503 consisting in the placement without an irrevocable commitment and the receipt and transmission of client orders relating to securities and instruments admitted for crowdfunding purposes issued by project owners or special purpose vehicles (resolution no. 23014 of 20 February 2024).
Combating market abuse (art. 7-octies of the Consolidated Law on Finance)Order, pursuant to art. 7-octies, letter b) of Italian Legislative Decree no. 58 of 24 February 1998 (Consolidated Law on Finance) to cease infringement of art. 18 of Consolidated Law on Finance, put in place by:
- Tcrinvest via the https://tcrinvest.net website and its https://account.tcrinvest.net and https://trading.tcrinvest.net pages (resolution no. 23017 of 20 February 2024);
- Interactive via the www.intr-active.com website and its https://intr-active.solutions and https://clientportalpage.intr-active.com pages (resolution no. 23021 of 20 February 2024);
- Capitalwealthmanagement.co via the www.capitalwealthmanagement.co website and its https://clientzone.capitalwealthmanagement.co page (resolution no. 23019 of 20 February2024);
- BGB Partners via the https://bgbpartners.cm website and its https://client.bgbpartners.cm and https://webtrader.bgbpartners.cm pages (resolution no. 23020 of 20 February 2024);
- FDXCrypto via the https://colmex247.io website and its https://client.colmex247.io and https://webtrader.colmex247.io pages (resolution no. 23018 of 20 February 2024).
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, Domenico Conti, Laura Ferri, Chiara Tomaiuoli, Alfredo Gloria - 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. -
News of the week:
Watch for scams! Financial fraud: Consob blacks out 6 more unauthorised websites
Save the Date 4 March 2024: Brick Walls and Glass Ceilings - Female leadership and the ESG mission
Global Money Week 2024, from 18 to 24 March
Consob approves the amendments to the Rules of the Markets of Borsa Italiana
Consob approves the amendments to Monte Titoli Spa's Service Regulations
ESMA: looking for candidates for the Stakeholder Group (SMSG)
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News of the week:
Watch for scams! Financial fraud: Consob blacks out 5 more unauthorised websites
Consob Statistical Bullettin
Three-Year Plan on Corruption Prevention and Transparency: update of Consob's Three-Year Plan 2024-2026
ESMA: consultation on the reverse solicitation and classification of cryptocurrencies as financial instruments under the MiCA legislation
OECD Report on financial consumer risks
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News of the week:
Watch for scams! Financial fraud: Consob blacks out 4 more unauthorised websites
Consob's Legal Research Paper on senior non-preferred bonds
Pierrel, mandatory residual takeover bid at 1.75 euro
Cyber risk, new proposals from EU supervisory authorities within the scope of the DORA Regulation