Let George Do It! For more than 30 years the NFA has developed programs that safeguard market integrity, protect investors. At times our organization has been visionary in its pursuit of appropriate regulations and services. As your new Board Member, I endeavor to maintain and enhance this effort. Certainly the confidence of investors is critical to the success and growth of our markets. The most effective is to create and maintain the highest levels of integrity of all market participants. • Vision I have served on many profit and nonprofit boards, from corporate endeavors, to college, and philanthropic organizations. As....
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....
NIBA Announcements
The NIBA is excited to announce its three annual membership conferences for the 2015 calendar year. California Membership Conference: February 19, 2015 New York Membership Conference: April 30, 2015 Chicago Membership Conference: September 24, 2015 Please save the dates and more details to follow….....
NIBA Member of the Month: Stewart-Peterson Group, Inc.
FIRM PROFILE Firm Name: Stewart-Peterson Group Inc. Founded: 1985 Number of Brokers: 20+ IB Status: GIB NIBA Member Since: Its inception Address (City, State): West Bend, Wisconsin Number of Branch Offices: 6 Website: www.stewartpetersongroup.com NFA Registration Number: 0185491 About the Firm: How did you get started? Do you provide additional services besides brokerage? The founder of Stewart-Peterson Group, Scott Stewart, has a passion for agriculture, and wanted to do what he could to help producers in their marketing. Stewart-Peterson provides services to producers that help them make impactful pricing decisions through one-on-one relationships and newsletters. What are the biggest challenges your clients face today, and how do you....
Housekeeping, Reminders and Updates–Dec 2014
Notice I-14-33 On December 1st, the NFA released Notice to Members I-14-33 regarding the CFTC’s recent approval on the NFA’s Interpretive Notice entitled “NFA Compliance Rules 2-4 and 2-36: Prohibition on the Use of Certain Electronic Funding Mechanisms.” Effective January 31, 2015, the Interpretative Notice prohibits NFA Members from permitting customers to fund their futures and forex accounts with the use of a credit card or any other electronic method tied to a credit card. An example of another method tied to a credit card would be using payment facilitators such as PayPal that draw funds from credit card accounts. ....
DePaul University Cyber-Risk Conference
“Sharing information is extremely helpful, but some large companies are now assuming that truly determined hackers cannot be kept out. So they are putting more emphasis on building resilience—the ability to bounce back fast in the event of a breach. It is essential to have well-conceived recovery plan to test it regularly, says Ed Powers of Deloitte, a consulting firm. In financial services, where a problem at one company could easily trigger a system-wide crisis, regulators are urging banks and other firms to consider resilience across markets.” —From the Cyber Security Special Report—Defending the Digital Frontier, The Economist, July 12,....
Member of the Month | Michael Coglianese CPA, P.C.
NIBA Member Spotlight on Michael Coglianese CPA, P.C. Founded: April 1987 NIBA Member Since: 2009 Address: 125 E. Lake Street, Suite 303, Bloomingdale, IL 60108 Branch Offices: 2 Web: cogcpa.com About the Firm: Michael Coglianese CPA, P.C. was founded in 1987. Before that, Mike Coglianese was working at NFA as an In-Charge Compliance Auditor. Sitting across the table during the compliance and financial audits and investigations of NFA Members, Mike realized that the Futures Industry was lacking accountants who were experienced with the intricacies of the regulatory world. He set out to fill that void. Over the past 28 years, his firm....
Highlighting Important Changes Happening to BASIC
As part of its ongoing commitment to customer protection, National Futures Association (NFA) recently made changes to its display of futures commission merchant (FCM) financial information on its Background Affiliation Status Information Center (BASIC) online tool. BASIC is a comprehensive database of registration, disciplinary and financial information about derivatives firms and salespeople. It contains the disciplinary history and other background information of more than 150,000 individuals and 10,000 firms that currently, or have been, involved in the derivatives industry. Since 2012 when NFA enhanced the amount of information it provides to investors performing due diligence of firms, BASIC has displayed....
Member Fee Reminder:
Member Fee Reminders will be sent to all member categories in December. For the 10th year, fees for IBs, CTAs and CPOs will remain at $150. You can renew your membership or join online or with the application included in your reminder envelope. Benefits of membership include: A company listing with click-thru to your website at the NIBA Online Broker Directory. The NIBA Broker Directory is recognized by the industry as the go-to source for general and contact information for IBs, CTAs and CPOs. Attendance at Member conferences and other events including February 19 in southern California, April 30 in....
The CFTC Revisits Dodd-Frank Rulemakings, and Responsiveness Shines Through
On Monday, November 3, 2014, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) held an open meeting to consider three proposed rule amendments addressing the residual interest deadline (CFTC Rule 1.22), recordkeeping requirements for commodity interest and related cash or forward transactions (CFTC Rule 1.35), and forward contracts with embedded volumetric optionality (CFTC Products Release ). In passing the amendments, the CFTC, acting under a new chairman, demonstrated a willingness to re-visit prior rulemaking under the Dodd-Frank Act. The meeting began with opening statements by Chairman Massad and Commissioners Wetjen and Bowen. Chairman Massad vocalized support of the amendments and stressed....