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 of this contact is to keep the lines of communication between the NFA and NIBA members. This month’s questions were selected from those submitted by NIBA members. The answers were supplied by NFA staff. Q: How do I find information for IBs…...
Housekeeping – August 2017
Written by: Mark E. Ruddy, Esq. Maria Fielding, Legal Assistant Three of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC”) Nominees Confirmed The United States Senate confirmed J. Christopher Giancarlo as Chairman and Rostin Behnam and Brian Quintenz as commissioners of the CFTC. The Senate did not vote on the fourth and final nominee currently awaiting confirmation, Dawn DeBerry Stump. As announced in Press Release pr7602-17, Commissioner Quintez was sworn in on August 15, 2017. As acting Chairman, Giancarlo already proposed earlier this year notable restructuring of the CFTC as well as a more thoughtful approach regarding rules and regulations and…...
Ascent Introduces Intelligence-as-a-Service
What is Intelligence as a Service? Intelligence-as-a-Service (“IntaaS”) is the combination of automated domain expertise with traditional internet software. Imagine if your CRM came pre-filled with customer information, your taxes were pre-loaded and completed in your tax software, or your digital compliance system was pre-filled with all your data: this is the promise of IntaaS. Software-as-a-Service reduced the marginal cost of delivering services. IntaaS reduces the cost of both creating and delivering a unit of intelligence to customers. What we Do In systems where the inputs are standard and the output is identical (think self-driving cars), deep learning works extraordinarily well. Even in…...
Housekeeping, Reminders and Updates – July 2017
Written by: Mark E. Ruddy, Esq. Jessica I. Brown, CAMS Commodity Trading Advisors (“CTAs”) Third-Party Record Keeping Relief CTAs now have the ability to request relief from certain Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC”) Regulation 4.33 and 4.7(c)(2) record-keeping requirements. CFTC Exemptive Letter No 17-24 provided CTAs relief from the requirement that books and records must be kept at the registrant’s main office. Letter 17-24, issued by the Division of Swap Dealers and Intermediary Oversight (“DSIO”), allows CTAs to submit a request for relief so that the firm may use a third-party record keeper to comply with Regulations 4.33 and 4.7(c)(2).…...
Dodd-Frank Wants Other Markets to Be More Like Futures Markets – And That’s A Good Thing!
Written By: Leslie Sutphen, President, Financial Markets Consulting, LLC There has been much talk about repealing most of the Dodd-Frank act now that we have a change of party in the Presidency. To many in the futures industry, this seems like a good thing; however, in determining whether the Volcker Rule and Title VII of Dodd Frank should be repealed, it is important to remember why Dodd-Frank was passed to begin with. The act was designed to address very real issues with lack of regulation, lack of transparency, and poor risk management practices that brought about the Financial Crisis of…...
Illinois Financial Services “Privilege” tax?
By: Scott Kruse – Turnkey Trading Partners The State of Illinois is bankrupt. Whether anyone will acknowledge that or not is up for debate. Readers who are not familiar with the perilous state of financial affairs in Illinois need look no further than any major news publication over the last two weeks. The situation has gotten so dire that even the Chicago Tribune, Illinois’ very own reporting establishment, has gotten in on the action. Just this past week this tongue and cheek article about “Dissolving the Land of Lincoln” was run. All of this would be funny if things in…...
Senate Agricultural Committee Confirms Giancarlo as Chairman for the CFTC
The U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry this morning voted overwhelmingly to confirm the nomination of J. Christopher Giancarlo as Chairman for the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission. He has served as Acting Chairman since January. This paves the way for his nomination to move forward to consideration on the Senate floor. Read full CFTC Press Release Here...
DOL Fiduciary Rules
Recently, a new rule went into effect at the Department of Labor that may have some implications on your business. To the extent that you recommend trading systems, CTAs or make investment recommendations to clients with retirement accounts, you should carefully review this information and possibly consult with an attorney on the implications to your business. On a high level, the rule generally requires financial professionals of all types, including brokers, financial advisors or wealth managers, who provide investment advice to retirement investors to act as fiduciaries, meaning that they must act in the best interests of their clients. It…...
Thinking of Starting a Fund? Here’s 10 Things For You to Consider
Written by: Matt Kluchenek, Patricia McDonald & Michael Sefton, Baker&McKenzie If you’ve been thinking about starting a hedge fund, you’ve likely encountered a byzantine array of options and requirements. Sorting through these options and requirements can be overwhelming. However, planning ahead and identifying key issues can clear a path and help you efficiently achieve your goal. In this article, we identify 10 of the most common considerations that arise for emerging fund managers. The Approach: Fund or Managed Account? Initially, most traders focus on forming a fund simply because it is the most common investment vehicle. That often makes sense.…...
Ask NFA – June 2017
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 of this contact is to keep the lines of communication between the NFA and NIBA members. This month’s questions were selected from those submitted by NIBA members. The answers were supplied by NFA staff. If I am executing non-cleared swaps…...