Italian financial regulator Consob bans four new domains

Consob, Italy’s financial watchdog, recently announced that it had banned access to a new batch of investment websites. The regulator even blocked access to the sites that were licensed in other jurisdictions. In this latest move, Consob banned access to four new platforms.

Unlicensed trading sites continue to emerge in Italy

Regulators around the world have been banning access to investment sites that offer unlicensed services in their jurisdictions for years now, and Consob is no different. The regulator has been making similar moves for a long time in an ongoing effort to protect Italian investors from unauthorized and potentially fraudulent financial schemes.

This proactive stance has been a model for a number of other countries that are experiencing similar issues, especially with the global nature of digital assets and online trading. In its latest report, the regulator said that four new domains have been added to its growing register of banned investment platforms.

According to Consob, these platforms were promoting their trading products illegally in Italy. Meanwhile, Italian investors were warned to stay away from any company offering financial services without proper licensing.

The country’s financial watchdog named the freshly-banned platforms as Bitblanco, Cryptogo365 Ltd., TCRinvest, and EuroXTradeFX. The regulator was fully within its rights to block these platforms thanks to the Decreto Crescita law, which allows Consob to block local investors’ access to online brokers.

Consob warns the public not to access blacklisted websites

Consob has been taking similar actions for several years now, and so far, it has ordered the local ISPs to block nearly 1,000 domains. All of them were operating illegally in the region, even though some have been licensed in other jurisdictions. But, without the proper license to operate in Italy, their activities in the country are still considered illegal.

Despite the fact that the regulator ordered ISPs to block these domains, it still issued a warning to the public, as technical reasons may cause delays between issuing the block order and the platforms actually getting blocked. The procedure often encounters additional complications if the website owners temporarily shut it down before the domain is blocked.

The websites that Consob has warned the public about offer trading in CFDs and forex, but the Italian regulator added that some also deal with cryptocurrencies. That includes both cryptos themselves, as well as some related derivatives, such as CFDs. This confirms that the regulator has concerns regarding regulatory issues and risks associated with digital currency trading, and it seeks to ensure that all platforms offering such services are regulatory compliant and licensed.