On May 17, I represented the NIBA at the U.S. House Agricultural Committee Reception hosted by the NFA. This annual event takes during the days NFA holds its board meeting in Washington. Mike Burke and Scott Stewart, IIB representative and GIB representatives respectively were both in DC for these meetings. While in Washington, Mike and I visited with the CFTC…...

The US is not the only part of the world with new regulation to comply with.  The EU has recently put forth the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).  If you do not do business in the EU an do not have any customers from that region – this is as far as you need to read.  However, if you do…...

Written by:      Mark E. Ruddy, Esq. Maria Fielding National Futures Association (“NFA”) Stays Virtual Currency Reporting Requirements NFA announced on December 14, 2017 that it would require additional reporting requirements from commodity pool operators (“CPOs”) and commodity trading advisors (“CTAs”) who are involved in virtual currency transactions and introducing brokers (“IBs”) who accept orders in virtual currency derivatives. On March…...

CME Group’s Market Regulation Department works to protect the market integrity of all four of its Exchanges – CME, CBOT, NYMEX & COMEX.  Take a look at the “Meet the Team” video below produced by CME.  These videos are very informative and make for great content when educating new brokers or market participants.  NIBA will be publishing more video content…...

Your NIBA representatives will be travelling to Washington D.C. next month to meet with our industry’s top regulators to discuss issues that are important to our membership.  If you have a topic or concern you would like to discuss with NIBA please reach out to us at [email protected]  Part of the NIBAs mission is to be a voice to the…...

Have you updated your AML Program to comply with the FinCEN changes going into effect on May 11, 2018? Most Futures Commission Merchants (“FCMs”) have implemented changes to their Anti-Money Laundering Programs (“AML Programs”) in accordance with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network’s (FinCEN) final rules issued on July 11, 2016. These FinCEN final rules must be incorporated into all FCM…...

Written by: Mark E. Ruddy, Esq., Maria Fielding National Futures Association (“NFA”) Stays Virtual Currency Reporting Requirements NFA announced on December 14, 2017 that it would require additional reporting requirements from commodity pool operators (“CPOs”) and commodity trading advisors (“CTAs”) who are involved in virtual currency transactions and introducing brokers (“IBs”) who accept orders in virtual currency derivatives. On March…...

On December 14, 2017, NFA issued Notices I-17-28 and I-17-29 requiring commodity pool operators (CPO) and commodity trading advisors (CTA) that execute transactions involving virtual currencies or virtual currency derivatives and introducing brokers (IB) that solicit or accept orders in virtual currency derivatives to immediately notify NFA by amending the firm-level section of the annual questionnaire. NFA reminds CPOs, CTAs and IBs that this is an…...

As your industry advocate, the NIBA provides many services which help your business stay in compliance with NFA regulations. “Ask the NFA,” is the way you can ask questions about those regulations and compliance requirements without having to call NFA directly. Just email us at [email protected] and we will get the answers for you. Please keep in mind the purpose…...

On Tuesday, February 6, the NFA held its annual members meeting. For the umpteenth year in a row, I was the only NFA member attending. I attended in order to present NFA staff members with questions from the NIBA membership – questions which IBs/CTAs might not want to ask the NFA directly. As they always are, NFA staff was very…...