Italy’s watchdog Consob, in what appears to be yet another extended campaign directs is ire towards another batch of FX websites. This includes one that promotes it is licensed by the National Futures Association and four others who have now been added to Italy’s list of websites that are banned for illegally promoting the trading of products in the country.
The list of websites includes:
- Access to Finance Activity Group (www.capo-invest.com website)
- FXTrading Corp (https://fxtradingcorp.trade website)
- Tradefxzone Ltd and SolutionsCM Ltd (https://tradefxzone.com website)
- ForTradersFx Ltd (www.fortraders-fx.com website)
- OGAM Ltd (www.ogamfx.com website) was restricted.
As a result of the adding to its banned list, the regular has sent notices to all internet service providers in the country advising them to block access to the sites noted above. Those ISP’s that fail to adhere to this request will face sanctions from Consob. While the sites can appeal the banning, a reversal of the decision would take months, especially under the current COVID-19 pandemic.
The five sites banned and Consob’s actions are supported by Italy’s “Decreto Crescita’ law which allows the regular to stop access to online brokers it deems illegal to Italian investors. In total, CONSOB has blocked 189 websites and with their current position, it is expected others will feel their wrath.
The sites blocked today all offered CFD and Forex trading but some also offered crypto asserts. The latest crackdown is the result of Consob refining the process its takes to identify non-compliant companies. In December of last year, the Italian regular order operations cease for two sites that were licensed by CySEC. This included Hoch Capital Ltd and 24Option, a decision that also prevented Cypriot intermediaries from the solicitation of future or current customers within Italy.
At the time of the decision, Watchdog Consob stated that it based it on article 7-quarter, paragraph 4 of the Consolidated Law on Finance and article 86 of Mifid2. The legislation used to ban the websites allows the Italian regulator to order brokers and investment firms who offer services within the country and are members of another state in the EU to stop operations within the country after the have informed the member states competent authority.
Tom Arran
