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 27, 2018, NFA released Notice to Members I-18-07 to inform CPOs, CTAs, and IBs that they are currently not required to file the additional reporting requirements previously announced in December 2017. NFA cautioned, however, that it may contact individual firms…...

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 on a regular basis and we encourage our members to utilize these tools on their websites and other mediums....

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 brokerage and trading communities and to raise awareness on issues that directly affect the way you conduct business.  Look for a report on our trip in an upcoming compliance edition of NIBAs newsletter....

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 and Introducing Broker (“IB”) AML Programs by May 11, 2018. Introducing Brokers will need to fulfill this obligation within their own AML Programs even if they rely on their FCMs for certain aspects of the program. Specifically, these firms will…...

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 27, 2018, NFA released Notice to Members I-18-07 to inform CPOs, CTAs, and IBs that they are currently not required to file the additional reporting requirements previously announced in December 2017. NFA cautioned, however, that it may contact individual firms…...

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 ongoing obligation. Notices I-17-28 and I-17-29 also described additional reporting requirements for these CPOs, CTAs and IBs. The purpose of this notice is to inform CPOs, CTAs and IBs that NFA is not requiring the filing of this additional information…...

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: What is the time frame…...

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 responsive, conducted themselves very professionally and responded to our inquiries. This year, our membership had several questions for NFA staff. Here are two of those questions and the answers. The others will be posted in upcoming newsletters. From an IB…...

Michael Coglianese will be presenting this topic in an online presentation which will be made available to NIBA members.  This effort is being co sponsored by the NIBA and John Lothian.  All IB/CTA/CPO owners or interested parties should tune in as this session will highlight real changes you can make to your firms’ structure to best position yourself for the new tax laws.  Stay tuned for additional information and release dates....

The cryptocurrency asset class is here to stay and growing at warp speed. The stories are real.  Some cryptocurrency traders have turned $100,000 into $1,000,000 in less than a year.  Now those traders are creating cryptocurrency funds so they can trade on a multimillion dollar scale. This article will focus on five things you should know before setting up your crypto fund.  As a disclaimer I am not an attorney and therefore not providing you with legal advice.  If you need a legal advice, our firm can point you in the right direction.  We are a CPA firm that specializes…...