Italy probes Revolut over alleged unfair practices in investment services

MILAN (Reuters) -Italy's competition authority (AGCM) has opened a probe into some units of British financial technology giant Revolut for alleged unfair commercial practices related to its investment and banking services, the watchdog said on Thursday.

Revolut allegedly misled users, promoting investments in shares by emphasising the absence of commissions and failing to flag additional costs and limitations, AGCM said.

Revolut said that it was fully cooperating with AGCM and would continue to do so, adding it could not comment on specific details because the probe is ongoing.

"We take AGCM enquiries very seriously," it said.

"Revolut remains fully committed to upholding the highest standards of compliance and customer protection in Italy and across the globe."

According to the watchdog, Revolut did not make clear that its so-called zero fee products included fractional shares, which are significantly different from whole stocks in terms of voting and transfer rights.

The regulator, which is in charge of policing consumer rights, added that Revolut allegedly failed to clearly tell clients with investments in crypto assets that they would not be able to change stop-loss and take-profit settings, options that usually help investors in managing risks.

AGCM also said Revolut adopted an aggressive approach in suspending and blocking financial accounts, without providing customers with sufficient notice or adequate assistance.

"This prevented users to access their cash and related services, even for extended periods of time," it said.

The regulator and Italy's finance police carried out inspections at the Italian premises of Revolut Bank UAB on Tuesday, AGCM said in a statement.

Revolut has emerged as the most successful of the handful of European fintechs founded in the past decade with a digital-only model.

It was valued at $45 billion last year, rivalling big European lenders, and it has plans to expand into mortgages and consumer lending to challenge high street lenders, as well as to grow in the United States.

Under Italian legislation, breaches of consumer rights rules can lead to company fines ranging from 5,000 euros to 10 million euros.

(Reporting by Elvira Pollina and Gianluca Semeraro. Additional reporting by Lawrence White in London. Editing by Mark Potter)