It has become a tradition to have a great Demo Hall each year at the NIBA Annual Member Meeting in Chicago. And this year, the Demo Hall is exceptional! Included are: Ascent Technology: Cloud-based Regulatory Compliance BarChart: Quote boards, Charts and Custom Workspaces CME Group: Today’s Leading and Most Diverse Derivatives Marketplace Michael Coglianese CPA, PC: Alternative Investment Accounting Delkos Research: Customized Research including Newsletters Great Lakes Credit Union: Personal and Business Accounts Options City: Trading Software Specifically for Options Traders Each of these firms can provide IBs, CTAs and FCMs with products and services unique to the needs of....
Baker & McKenzie to serve as counsel to the NIBA
NIBA is pleased to announce that the law firm of Baker & McKenzie has agreed to serve as councel to the Association. The lead attorney for Baker & McKenzie will be Matthew Kluchenek, who serves as the North American head of Baker & McKenzie’s derivatives practice, and who has more than 18 years of regulatory, transactional and enforcement experience working with IBs, CTAs, CPOs and others on futures and swaps matters. Baker & McKenzie has more than 4,500 lawyers in 77 offices around the world, and the global derivatives team includes more than 20 lawyers. We are excited to have Baker &....
Perfect Competition
There was a time, not too long ago, when broker-dealers were perceived as providing value to their customers. They would get on the phone, chat to customers, talk about the markets, and ultimately provide the order placement mechanisms we all relied on to execute our trades. Those days are long gone. With the rise of technology and direct market execution, many broker-dealers and especially introducing brokers have been disintermediated in the trading process. Many introducing brokers specifically have been demoted to being the sales arms of larger broker-dealers, earning pennies in commissions. In his book “Zero to One”, Pieter Thiel....
NIBA/DePaul Event Video Recap
Thank you again to DePaul University and to the speakers at the NIBA/DePaul co-sponsored event in Chicago. Nearly one hundred NIBA members heard sessions on meeting the challenges of marketing managed futures and updates on cybersecurity compliance before joining colleagues at a cocktail reception on the University Terrace. NIBA is in the second year of our academic partnership with DePaul University. You can view the program in its entirety via the video links below: Session One Video Session Two Video...
NFA BYLAW 1101: APPLICATION OF NFA BYLAW 1101 IN VARIOUS COMMON SCENARIOS
NFA BYLAW 1101: APPLICATION OF NFA BYLAW 1101 IN VARIOUS COMMON SCENARIOS If you are member of the National Futures Association (“NFA”), you have probably heard that you are required to abide by NFA’s Bylaw 1101 (“Bylaw 1101”) due diligence obligations in connection with the operation of your firm. Bylaw 1101 prohibits NFA Members (“Members”) from conducting business with or on behalf of non-NFA Members. In this regard, NFA imposes strict liability on its Members for violations of Bylaw 1101, with enforcement cases primarily issued in instances where the NFA staff believes that the Member “knew or should have known....
The Vanishing FCM
The “vanishing FCM” has recently become a hot topic. CFTC Commissioner Giancarlo gave a speech to the Market Risk Advisory Committee in June 2015, where he pointed out the dwindling number of FCMs and the concentration of customer assets in the top 5 FCMs. Reuters followed up with an article and Walt Lukken of the FIA gave an interview to the Financial Times. The common theme being the cost of regulation and increased capital requirements. There were 142 FCMs before the financial crisis in October 2008 and as of May 2015 there were only 74. On its face this represents....
HOUSEKEEPING, REMINDERS AND UPDATES JULY 2015
Commodity Futures Trading Commission Commodity Trading Advisors On July 23, 2015 the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s (“CFTC”) Division of Swap Dealer and Intermediary Oversight (“DSIO”) issued press release PR7202-15 announcing the issuance of a letter that exempts certain registered commodity trading advisors (“CTAs”) will be exempted from filing Form CTA-PR. Specifically, the letter exempts CTAs that are registered but do not direct any client commodity interest accounts from filing Form CTA-PR. The letter details the exemptive relief from CFTC Regulation 4.27(c) with respect to certain registered CTAs (“Letter 15-47”). The DSIO referenced the exemptive relief already granted to commodity pool....
Ask the NFA
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 NFA and NIBA members open, not to fix any specific individual concerns. This month’s questions were selected from those submitted by NIBA members. The answers were supplied by NFA....
FinCEN issues an advisory on the FATF-identified jurisdictions with AML/CFT deficiencies
Notice to Members I-15-18 On July 20, 2015, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) issued an advisory announcing that the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) had updated its list of jurisdictions with strategic AML/CFT deficiencies. NFA Member FCMs and IBs should review this advisory to ensure that their AML programs have the most current information on FATF-identified jurisdictions with AML/CFT deficiencies and revise their AML programs accordingly. A copy of the advisory is available on FinCEN’s website....
The Remarkable Growth of Options on Futures
Trading of futures options is growing rapidly and has widely been viewed as a market primed for expansion. While somewhat nascent compared to equity and index options markets, the Tabb Group expects futures options activity to grow strongly as financial market participants increasingly use these products as part of their investment and hedging strategies. Factors such as changing interest rate policies, the increased electronification of options, technology advancements and underlying futures becoming more attractive to investors are all having an impact. Post-financial crisis, we’ve seen the popularity of options on futures grow across all asset classes at CME Group. In....