Italian regulator Consob blocks six illegal website
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Consob, the Italian financial market regulator, has continued to crack down on platforms offering financial market services illegally in the country. The platform has now blacklisted six platforms offering illegal financial services in the country. The regulator said none of the platforms had obtained regulatory authority to operate in Italy.
Consob blacklists six unregulated platforms
The six platforms the regulator has blacklisted include Axi24, Evolve Consulting LCC, FXBoxed, New Finance LLC, Prime Invest, and Trustfund-Mining Global Pty Ltd. The regulator noted that these five platforms offered illegal intermediation websites, adding that one provided financial products without a prospectus.
Only three out of the six websites blacklisted by Consob could be accessed outside Europe. At least two blacklisted platforms claim to have obtained regulatory approval from the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC).
The registration details provided on the two websites appear to be factual. However, there is no way to verify the authenticity of these two websites because the ASIC does not list the domains approved by the regulator, which is usually the case with regulators based in Cyprus and the United Kingdom.
One of the platforms blacklisted by the Italian regulator has authorization from Grenadines and Saint Vincent. Therefore, some platforms might have received regulatory approvals from other countries but have failed to secure the same with Consob, making them illegal platforms in the country.
Some blacklisted platforms offer risky financial instruments
Three of the platforms’ websites that users could access provide risky financial instruments such as supporting the purchase and sale of margin forex pairs, contracts for differences (CFDs), and cryptocurrencies.
The Italian financial market regulator has been actively blacklisting platforms it believes are not eligible to operate in the country. Consob’s blacklisting of these five websites has increased the number of illegal platforms to 845.
Consob first started blacklisting illegal websites in July 2019. At the time, the regulatory body obtained more supervisory powers over financial markets after legislation on the same was passed.
Consob is the only regulator in Europe with authority to block access to blacklisted websites in the same capacity as an internet service provider. The regulator ensures that Italian residents cannot access websites that could cause losses.
The regulator previously stressed the need for due diligence when making investment decisions. It has urged investors who want to protect their savings to check whether the financial service provider is regulated and to ensure that those offering financial products have a prospectus.
Other European regulators have been publishing the names and details of platforms that are not regulated in their jurisdictions. The FCA usually publishes a list of clones and fraudulent websites on their platforms. Additionally, regulators in Cyprus and Spain have an active list of these platforms to ensure investors are on the lookout.
