Six months after Peregrine Financial Group Inc. collapsed in scandal, the son of its disgraced founder is struggling to move forward. Russell Wasendorf Jr., who worked under his now-jailed father at Peregrine for 22 years, is fighting a lawsuit from a group of the firm’s former clients, who say he missed signs of wrongdoing. At the same time, the 42-year-old is trying to figure out his own next move. He has relocated with his family from Peregrine’s base of Cedar Falls, Iowa, to the Orlando, Fla., area, where he is looking for work as a consultant and considering moving to....
ICE Launches First Indian Rupee Futures at a U.S. Exchange on Jan 22
ICE Futures U.S. announced that it will launch a new cash-settled currency futures contract based on the Indian rupee/U.S. dollar exchange rate on Tuesday, January 22. The ICE rupee contract will be the first futures contract on the Indian currency offered by a U.S. exchange. It offers market participants the ease of doing business in a regulated futures environment for execution and clearing, alongside ICE’s suite of more than 60 currency contracts, which includes the U.S. Dollar Index. The listing of the Indian rupee contract recognizes the increasing importance and integration of India into the world economy and responds to....
Proposed MF Global Settlements Lay Groundwork for Potential 100% Recovery For All Commodity Customers
On December 21, 2012, the MF Global Inc. (‘MFGI’) trustee entered into two settlement agreements with affiliates that together, if both settlements are approved and effected, provide a roadmap for potential 100% recoveries for all MFGI’s commodity customers. Such 100% recoveries would depend on an elimination of the commodity customer asset shortfall through a combination of recovery of assets from affiliates, offsetting of affiliate claims and reallocation of MFGI’s proprietary assets. This would be positive for IBs for a number of reasons. The trustee has entered into two separate settlement agreements, one between MFGI and MFGI’s UK affiliate (the ‘UK....
Member Obligations Under NFA Bylaw 1101 with Respect to Certain IBs Afforded Temporary Registration No-Action Relief
NFA Bylaw 1101 prohibits an NFA Member from carrying an account, accepting an order or handling a transaction in commodity futures contracts for or on behalf of any non-Member of NFA that is required to be registered with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) as an FCM, IB, CPO, CTA or LTM. Bylaw 1101 by its terms imposes strict liability on any Member conducting customer business with a non-Member that is required to be registered. Effective October 11, 2012, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) afforded certain IBs temporary registration no-action relief. Specifically, the CFTC’s Division of Swap Dealer and....
IIB Candidate for NFA BOD | John Alan Vassallo
Information Request Questionnaire Your Name & NFA # John Alan Vassallo 221551 How long have you personally been in the futures industry? 25 years Your 3-sentence Bio: Began working on the NYMEX floor in 1989; moved back to my home town, Dallas, TX, in 1990 to found my IB, Coquest which focuses on energy trading/hedging and managed futures. We now include an OTC brokerage company and a portion of Mega Capital, an IIB focused on managed futures. Your Disciplinary History, if any: None. Professional associations or Industry activities: I have served on the NFA Board for 10 years; NFA arbitrator;....
Rebuilding Confidence Through Safer Markets
Since the failures of MF Global and PFG, CME Group has worked closely with futures industry leaders to restore customer confidence and strengthen the protection of customer segregated funds. Together, CME Group, the NFA and the CFTC worked together to institute, in order to deter the misuse of customer funds, including: Daily segregation reporting by all FCMs. Bi-monthly reporting on investment of segregated funds. Increased surprise reviews of customer segregated funds. Ability to electronically confirm firms’ customer seg balances. New rules providing direct, online access to firm bank accounts for confirmations. CEO/CFO accountability for disbursements of more than 25 percent....
CME Group Completes Acquisition of Kansas City Board of Trade
Yesterday CME Group announced that it completed its acquisition of the Kansas City Board of Trade. Below is a message on this from CME Group’s Tim Andriesen that went to CME Group customers and we wanted to pass this along to our industry association contacts who may have an interest. To Our Valued Customers: A few weeks ago we told you about CME Group’s plans to acquire the Kansas City Board of Trade (KCBT). We are pleased to announce that the acquisition has been completed, and we will be able to offer you greater capital efficiencies, new trading opportunities and....
Chairman’s Letter – December, 2012
Dear Members – As 2012 draws to an end, most of us are still looking for answers to the confusing, disappointing, dangerous and just plain weird events of the past year. Regulatory, legal and accounting issues which directly affect our businesses will all undergo significant changes in 2013 – some as a direct result of the MF Global and PFGBest failures. This issue of the NIBA newsletter includes information that we hope will help you prepare for a better year ahead. In addition to the articles, NIBA is happy to announce a co-sponsored event in southern California with the CME....
January 24, 2013 | SoCal Event, Newport Beach, CA
NIBA, CME Group and the NFA will host an afternoon event at Flemings Steakhouse in Newport Beach, California. Date: January 24, 2013 Time: 2:00pm-6:00pm Location: Flemings Steakhouse, Newport Beach The focus of this tri-sponsored event will be the economic and regulatory outlook for 2013. The program includes: “Global Economic Update in this Era of Dissonance” presented by Blu Putnam | Chief Economist for the CME Group. “Regulation Changes in 2013: What Should You Expect?” presented by the NFA. “Getting Full Value from Your NIBA Membership” presented by John Jensen | President of the NIBA | President, Heritage West Financial, San....
Coming in 2013: Swap Designated IBs
The Dodd-Frank Act of 2010 amended the definitions of FCM, IB, CPO and CTA to include “swaps.” On August 13, 2012, the CFTC published final rule definitions for “swaps”, “security-based swaps” and “security-based swap agreement”. Therefore, any IBs that are not currently registered but are acting as an IB with respect to swaps subject to the jurisdiction of the CFTC must file to be registered with the CFTC on or before December 31, 2012, and be approved as a swap designated IB Member of NFA. In addition, any person associated with a newly registering IB that engages in activities involving....