Italy’s financial market regulator expands block list with four new listings
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The Italian financial market regulator, Consob, is still cracking down against illegal platforms operating in the country. The watchdog has now blocked four new trading platforms that have been added to its blacklist.
Consob blocks four more websites
The four new websites the regulator has blacklisted include AMA Business Solution Ltd, Pelliron Universal Inc, Mortiz Ltd, and FXALTA LTD, and New Finance LLC and NEWFX Ltd.
These four platforms provide access to trading services entailing risky contracts for differences (CFDs) instruments. However, the platforms failed to secure the appropriate registration in Italy, forcing the regulator to block them.
The majority of the blocked websites are not regulated, or they have been incorporated in offshore jurisdictions. One of these websites, AMA Business Solution LTD, which operated as SolidXM, was not forthcoming about its operations and activities in Italy.
The website of SolidXM does not share any in-depth information about the company behind its website, which makes the company appear to be a scam, with no way of knowing whether the provided financial services are genuine.
On the other hand, Pelliron claims to have secured registration in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. The company has also published a UK phone number on the website, showing that the company largely targets traders based in the UK.
The other blocked site, NewFX, claims to have secured the appropriate registration in Delaware, United States. However, the company does not appear to have secured any licenses in the US or offshore jurisdictions.
FX Alta claims to be regulated in Malaysia. It is important to note that Consob is not the only regulator that has flagged FX Alta. Earlier this month, Canada’s Manitoba Securities Commission warned against the company.
Italy’s Consob continues blocking illegal platforms
The Italian financial market regulator has been blocking illegal websites in the country. Consob has already blocked access to 879 platforms that operate illegally in the country or for running scams. Earlier this month, the financial market regulator added five names to the number of blocked platforms.
Consob is the only financial market regulator in Europe that has the authority to block access to blacklisted websites at a domain level. The regulator received the authority to take such action in June 2019 from legislators in the country.
On its website, the regulator has released a statement saying, “Consob draws investors’ attention to the importance of adopting the greatest diligence in order to make informed investment choices, adopting common sense behaviors, essential to safeguard their savings: these include, for websites that offer financial services, 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.”
However, Consob is not the only regulator in Europe cracking down on firms offering their services illegally. Other regulators across Europe and the UK have warning lists containing the names of websites offering their services illegally.
