Consob reports the increase in websites that offer abusive financial services, increasingly linked to the world of cryptocurrencies: numbers and trends. There are 651 sites blacked out by Consob from 2019 to date, web portals that offer financial services illegally, increasingly linked to the world of cryptocurrencies. The control body of the Italian financial market has in fact the right to order Internet connectivity service providers to inhibit access from Italy to websites offering unauthorized financial services, as required by the 2019 Growth Decree.
Digital finance: the rules for online investments February 10, 2022 During a hearing before the Consumer Protection Commission in the Chamber, the president of Consob, Paolo Savona, in recent days underlined how in 2021 consumer exposures on abusive phenomena were over a thousand, an increase compared to previous years. This is due to the lack of administrative sanctions since 2016 for some cases of financial abuse. Complaints on illegal activities represent half of all those received. In the last three years, 70 penalties have been imposed for abusive activities, of which over 60% relates to offers without a prospectus and the related advertising activity. The way to reach the potential investor almost always involves aggressive marketing techniques such as emails, chats, social networks and phone calls. Consob, on the other hand, draws the attention of savers to the importance of making investment choices in full awareness, through sensible behavior that can safeguard savings: preventive verification for sites offering financial services, for example, is essential to evaluate that the investor through which the investment is made is authorized and that the offers of financial products are accompanied by a prospectus.
Cryptocurrencies: OAM Register obligation March 2, 2022 The abusive subjects are often fictitious companies that declare their headquarters in non-European countries or in fact untraceable. Often operators declare that they are authorized by European authorities without providing any proof. The activities proposed abusively often concern trading services on web platforms and financial instruments such as derivatives with underlying currencies, stock market indices, commodities and cryptocurrencies. Illegally offered products are increasingly connected to the world of crypto-assets.
Cryptocurrencies at a turning point: the situation today, the market, the new rules March 14, 2022 For digital investors, in fact, the risks inherent in cryptocurrencies are linked above all to the volatility of prices as well as the absence of legal protections and above all the apparent zeroing of commissions. In this scenario, Consob proposes: • the introduction of specific limits to the advertising activity of crypto-assets, • the attribution of specific law enforcement powers, on the model of financial products and instruments. Currently, in fact, advertising is subject to Consob checks only in cases of abusive offers of financial products. Among the tools available today in Italy for the protection of consumers through the deflation of legal disputes, we also remember the Arbitrator for Financial Disputes (ABF), which in 2021 recorded a record of compensation awarded to savers equal to 35.88 million euros.
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