Italy’s Companies and Exchange Commission (CONSOB) has issued orders for the blocking of five unauthorised investment websites.
In issuing the orders, the Authority availed itself of the powers deriving from the “Decreto crescita” (“Growth Decree”; Law no. 58 of 28 June 2019, Article no. 36, paragraph 2-terdecies). This piece of legislation allows Consob can to order Internet service providers to block access from Italy to websites offering financial services without the proper authorization.
The websites targeted by the latest Consob orders are:
- “First State Investments (Ireland) Limited” (website www.fsi.cm and related pages https://webtrader.fsi.cm and https://client.fsi.cm);
- “FtseInvest” (website https://ftseinvest.com and related pages https://client.ftseinvest.com and https://webtrader.ftseinvest.com);
- “Partnersce” (website www.partnersce.cm and related pages https://client.partnersce.cm and https://webtrader.partnersce.cm);
- “AlfaMarket” (website https://alfamarketcapital.com and related page https://platform.platform-alfamarketpanel.eu);
- “Mestieriplaza” (website www.mestieriplaza.co).
The number of websites blocked since July 2019, when Consob got the power to order that the websites of fraudulent financial intermediaries be blacked out, has thus risen to 1125.
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 blocking to be implemented.
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 their savings: these include checking in advance that the operator with whom they are investing is authorized, and, for offers of financial products, that a prospectus has been published.
