Italy’s Companies and Exchange Commission (CONSOB) has ordered the blocking of access to five new websites through which financial services are abusively offered.

In particular, Consob ordered the blackout of two abusive financial intermediation websites and three websites through which crypto currency services are provided without the necessary authorization.

The entities targeted by the latest orders are:

• “Geneve Capital Invest” (website https://geneveinvestcap.com and page https://webtrader.gencapwebtrader.com);
• “Finbridge International” (website https://finbridgeinternational.com and page https://webtrader.finbridgeinternational.trade);
• “Atomic Wallet” (website https://atomicwallet.io);
• “Cexrqw.com” (website https://cexrqw.com);
• “Interersos.it” (website https://interersos.it);

In issuing the orders, the Authority made use of the powers deriving from the “Decreto crescita” (“Growth Decree”, converted by Law No. 58 of 28 June 2019) regarding the black-out of websites of abusive financial intermediaries, as well as of the powers introduced by the MiCAR (Regulation (EU) 2023/1114 and Legislative Decree No. 129 of 5 September 2024) regarding the black out of websites through which crypto currency services are provided to Italian savers in the absence of the prescribed authorisations.

The number of websites blacked out since July 2019, when Consob got the power to order that the websites of fraudulent financial intermediaries be blocked, has thus risen to 1381. Last week, the regulator ordered the blocking of access to seven unauthorized investment websites.

The black-out of these websites by Internet service providers operating in Italy is ongoing. For technical reasons, it can take several days for the blocking to be implemented.