The Organismo di vigilanza e tenuta dell'albo unico dei Consulenti Finanziari (hereinafter "OCF") is a not-for-profit organization that oversees italian financial advisors. OCF works to ensure that:

• every investor receives the basic protections they deserve;
• anyone who sells a securities product has been tested, qualified and licensed;
• any securities product sold to an investor are in the investor's best interest;
• in general to protect Italian investors by making sure that financial advisors operate fairly and honestly.

OCF holds the Register of Financial Advisors and protects investors, pursuant to Article 31, Paragraph 4 of the Italian Consolidated Law on Finance. At present, OCF oversees more than 52,000 financial avisors across the country.

The OCF is based in Rome, it has legal personality, organizational and financial independence and the power to write its own articles of association. It is made up of the professional associations of financial and independent financial advisors, authorized intermediaries and financial advisory firms, who choose the members in accordance with requisites of representativeness established by the Statute. Such associations currently are:

• ABI (Italian Banking Association);
• ANASF (National Association of Financial Advisors);
• ASCOFIND (Association for Independent Financial Advice);
• ASSONOVA (Association of Financial Advisors qualified for door-to-door selling);                
• ASSORETI (Association of Investment Advisory Firms);
• ASSOSCF (Italian Association of Independent Financial Advisory Firms);
• NAFOP (National Association Fee Only Planners).

The OCF was established on July 25, 2007 as the "Organization for the maintenance of the Register of Financial Advisors" (APF), started its operations on January 1, 2009 following Resolution No. 16737 of the National Commission for Companies and the Stock Exchange (CONSOB) of December 18, 2008 and has been provided its current name by the so-called Stability Italian Law in 2016.

Full transfer of the new functions to OCF took place on December 1, 2018, when OCF was granted supervisory functions and disciplinary powers in relation to its members following the assessment conducted by CONSOB, which continues to supervise the Organization.

OCF is therefore competent for the management of the public register of tied agents and is entitled for the supervision of correctness of tied agents’ activities to ensure compliance with applicable regulations. OCF’s mission is to protect investors and safeguard trust in the financial system. In this context, it adopts every organizational measure necessary to ensure the protection of investors, as well as the impartiality, autonomy and independence of the supervisory activity.

OCF exercises the supervisory and inspection powers assigned to it by sector legislation. In the contest of its competences, OCF can:

1. ask the financial advisors qualified for door-to-door selling or to the parties that make use of said firms, to the independent financial advisors and financial advisory firms to communicate data and information and transmit deeds and documents fixing the relative terms;
2. make inspections and require the exhibition of documents and performance of the acts considered necessary as well as conduct personal hearings with anyone who may be in possession of pertinent information.

In exercising its disciplinary powers, the OCF may issue formal warnings, suspend its members from exercising their activities or disqualify them if they fail to pay the fees and other sums payable for registration, breach legislative or administrative provisions that regulate their activities, or fail to disclose or provide information or data that has been requested. In case of urgent need, the OCF may also order the precautionary suspension of members from the list for up to one year, in the event that there is precise evidence that suggests that there have been serious breaches of the legislative or administrative provisions that regulate the activities of financial advisors.        

In its activity, OCF makes use of innovative technologies to keep a close eye on the market and provide essential support to investors, regulators, policymakers and other stakeholders. In particular, anomaly indicators and anomalous behavior patterns and models are the instruments used by OCF in support of the detection of suspicious activities. These indicators reduce the margins of uncertainty linked with subjective assessments or with discretionary behavior; in addition, they help to limit the burdens and contribute to the correct and uniform fulfilment of the reporting requirements for obliged entities. The patterns are drawn up based on the experience accumulated and making use of the contribution of obliged entities, and they correlate particular logical and time sequences of facts and behavior that experience shows are traceable to certain criminal activities.

We undertake these efforts to protect the investing public against fraud and bad practices.