Consob blacklist an additional five websites operating fraudulently

Consob, the financial market regulator for Italy, has blacklisted five more websites offering financial services without the proper regulatory approval. According to the Italian market regulator, these websites operated illegally or promoted fraudulent activities.

Consob blacklists five illegal FX/CFDs brokers

Consob has been adamant in ensuring that brokers and other companies providing illegal services cannot operate in the country. In recent years, Consob has blacklisted multiple websites and made sure that Italian residents cannot access these companies’ services.

The five financial service companies the regulator has blacklisted include Bright Group LLC, BrokerCreditServiceLtd[.]net, CMS Ltd, Olympusbrokers Ltd, and Unico Aust Pty Ltd, which operated as UnicoFX.

The five platforms promoted high-risk counterparty trading services. Some of the assets the companies alleged to support include contracts for differences (CFDs) and margin forex instruments. The companies also provided access to other financial instruments such as commodities, cryptocurrencies, shares, and indices.

None of the five financial companies included in the blacklist have obtained regulatory approval to operate in Italy or any country within the European Economic Area. Moreover, one of these websites impersonated a legitimate brokerage company regulated in Cyprus. Another website also makes false representations by claiming to obtain registration in St. Vincent and the Grenadines.

These five websites will be included in the names added to the Consob blacklist. Moreover, the Italian regulatory body will also block access to the five websites by acting as an internet service provider. Consob has the authority to block access to illegal websites at the domain level, which has allowed it to halt the operations of many illegal financial service providers in the country.

In the announcement about the recent blacklisting, Consob said that “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 efforts in blocking illegal websites

Consob obtained the authority to block illegal websites in 2019. The regulator received a legislative decree to halt access to the websites of financial service companies operating illegally in the country, making it the only financial supervisor in Europe with the power to do this.

Since Consob obtained the authority to halt access to illegal websites, the regulator has blacklisted 825 websites offering services in the country without obtaining regulatory approval.

While other European regulators have not publicly claimed their authority to halt website access at the domain level, they are still aggressively warning investors against illegal and fraudulent platforms.

The Cyprus financial market regulator recently issued an alert targeting the country’s five unregulated forex and CFDs platforms. The regulator further issued a warning against those impersonating its website. On the other hand, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has also been flagging illegal websites targeting UK residents.