Consob Blocks 780 Illegal Platforms with the Latest Addition of Six

The regulator has been blocking access to illegal websites since July 2019.

Most of these platforms offer FX and CFDs instruments.

Consob, which regulates the financial market in Italy, published a new list on Thursday, blocking an additional six platforms for illegally offering financial services in the country.

The names on the list are CMS Ltd, Clandestiny Group LLC, Cryptopay Limited, Axicapitals, Sureinvest and British Trade Limited. The new list came only a week after the Italian regulator blocked six other illegal platforms.

With the latest addition, the regulator is now blocking a total of 780 platforms that are illegally offering financial products inside Italy.

The recent blocklisted platforms offer risky financial products to retail customers. Most of the platforms provide forex and contract for differences (CFDs) instruments. At the same time, some have crypto products in their offerings.

These financial services platforms are not regulated in any other European jurisdictions. Most of them do not even have any offshore authorization either, making their services shady and offerings outright illegal. Though such illegal platforms take deposits with multiple channels, the trouble starts when traders try to withdraw their funds.

Consob is not the only regulator to red-flag such illegal financial services platforms. Its counterparts in Cyprus, Spain, and the United Kingdom also publish such lists regularly. However, the Italian body is indeed one of the most active regulators actively monitoring the market and looking out for such shady services.

Blocking Access

Unlike other regulators, Consob has had the authority to block access to these illegal websites at a domain level since July 2019. This gives additional powers to the regulator beyond only publishing the names of red-flagged companies.

“The black-out of these websites by Internet service providers operating on Italian territory is ongoing. For technical reasons, it can take several days for the black-out to come into effect,” Consob stated.

Despite the advancement in regulatory technology, it is hard to monitor all the illegal platforms. They only come to notice when victims complain about losses. Thus, Consob and other regulators suggest traders check the registration of platforms offering financial products before using their services.