Italian Companies and Stock Exchange Commission

About CONSOB

The Italian Companies and Stock Exchange Commission, known as CONSOB, is Italy’s independent public authority responsible for supervising the financial products and securities markets. It was established in 1974 and later obtained extensive organisational and operational independence under Italian public law. CONSOB regulates and supervises investment services, investment firms, securities markets, listed companies, public securities offerings, financial disclosures and market conduct. It monitors whether intermediaries act fairly, transparently and in accordance with investor-protection requirements. Its responsibilities include maintaining registers of authorised investment firms, supervising the transparency and orderly operation of financial markets, reviewing information published by listed companies and issuers, investigating insider dealing and market manipulation, imposing administrative sanctions and taking action against unauthorised financial service providers. For forex and CFD activities, CONSOB supervises the conduct of authorised investment firms serving clients in Italy under the Italian and European MiFID and MiFIR framework. Retail CFD providers must comply with leverage limits, margin close-out requirements, negative balance protection, risk warnings and restrictions on promotional incentives. CONSOB also has powers to warn investors, order unauthorised investment activities to cease and request the blocking of websites that illegally offer financial or trading services to Italian residents. Retail investors may submit regulatory reports to CONSOB, while eligible disputes involving investment-service misconduct may be referred to the Financial Disputes Arbitrator, known as ACF.