Financial services domains blocked by Consob rise to 548
Consob, the Italian securities regulator, has dropped the hammer on yet another number of FX websites it says were illegally promoting trading products in the country. It has contacted Italy’s internet service providers (ISPs), requesting that they block access to all of the sites in question.
In total, a dozen websites were targeted in the latest clampdown, which has been supported by the ‘Decreto Crescita’ law allowing CONSOB to obstruct Italian investors’ access to online brokers. The regulators took similar action throughout the past few months, ordering nearly 548 domains to be blocked.
The following websites belong to entities that are not allowed to offer financial services in Italy but continue to solicit investments from locals.
- Tradernet Ltd(website https://web.utradefx.uno and its pagehttps://utradefx.uno);
- “FMarketX”(website https://fmarketx.com and its pageshttps://client.fmarketx.com,https://webtrader.fmarketx.com);
- “Primus Trader”(website https://primustrader.com and its pages https://client.primustrader.com andhttps://webtrader.primustrader.com);
- “RoyalFX24”(website www.royalfx24.com and its page https://royal24fx.com);
- Allglobalfin Limited(website www.allglobalfin.com and its page https://webtrader.allglobalfin.com).
- Advantium Limited(https://advantiumlimited.com);
- Star Financial Services(www.starfinancialsvcs.com);
- The Best Comparison(https://thebest-comparison.com);
- IPO Portfolio(https://fixed-rate-interest.com);
- Crown Emerald Consultancy LLC(www.crownemeraldconsultancyllc.com);
- org(www.suncrypto.org), clone of a licensed company;
- Fxquote247(https://fxquote247.com). Already reported by the CNMV (Spain), see “ Consob Informa” no. 38/2021;
- InvestBoost / Invest Boost(www.stboost.co, www.investboost.cc);
- Hive Financial / Hive-Financial(https://hive-financial.com), clone of a licensed company;
- Blue Whale Investment (BWI)(https://bluewhaleinvestment.net), clone of a licensed company;
- Alpha Capital Holdings Inc(www.alphacapitalhldgs.com);
- InvestingExpert(http://investingexpert.co);
- The Unicornex Group s.r.o(https://inter-pay.cz).
The Italian regulator found new tools to address illegal operators in the market when the ‘Growth Decree’ extended its powers far beyond. Thanks to the decree, CONSOB can order Italian internet service providers (ISPs) to block websites in the region. Due to technical reasons, it can take several days for the black-out to come into effect when these websites shut for a temporary period.
Additionally, the authority has warned even authorized firms against falsely advertising unregulated products as being regulated by Consob. The watchdog added that these financial promotions were unlikely to provide consumers with the clarity required by its rules and could leave them unable to understand whether the promoted products or services were beyond its remit.
CONSOB has been amongst the most vigilant and strict regulators in Europe when it comes to dealing with leveraged trading. Furthermore, the watchdog put a blanket ban in place against activities of a handful of FX brokers regulated by CySEC, the UK FCA and elsewhere in Europe. CONSOB said the ban was necessary to protect Italian investors after these brokers repeated its violations despite the measures adopted by its original regulator.
