Italy’s Consob Blocks 5 More Online Forex Brokerage Websites

Italy’s financial watchdog the Commissione Nazionale per le Societa la Borsa (Consob) has blocked 5 additional online trading websites. The news come a week after the watchdog shut down four other online brokers for operating illegally in Italy.

In an official notice Consob said the new list brings to total 405, the number of websites blocked since 2019.  The five firms have been similarly accused offering unauthorized forex trading services and suspected of having fraudulent motives.

Consob has directed Italian internet services to block access for the firms. This move will make it impossible for the brokers to offer their trading services to Italian clients. Consob issues the directive to protect Italian traders from exploitation and financial fraud mostly perpetrated by unregistered or unlicensed entities.

The four websites  listed are Salvax Limited, Triton Partnership, Evolution Market and New Traders Holdings.  According to Consob the process of blocking internet access to the firms is ongoing.

“The black-out of these websites by Internet service providers operating on Italian territory is ongoing.”

While technical reasons may delay the process for a few days, Consob said its decision is final. The watchdog also advised investors to be careful while making investment decisions.

“Consob draws investors’ attention to the importance of adopting the greatest diligence in order to make informed investment choices.”

Consob added that investors should mind the legal status of a broker site and their choice of financial products.

Consob’s Fight against Unregistered Brokers

Consob is among EU regulators advocating for more power for all regulators across Europe. In the last one year, Italy has seen a surge in the number of unregistered online trading service providers. This is as a result of increased day time trading activity from the retail sector fueled by the down measures.  Consequently, investment scams targeted at retail traders through forex trading have been on the rise as well.

Recently, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in the UK announced that FXGbp Markets is unregulated in its jurisdiction.  Unlike Consob, many regulators in Europe can only issue a warning to the public about an unregistered entity. However the Italian regulator can take further action and remove the unregistered brokers’ services from all traders’ access.