Dear Members:
I attended the NFA Annual Meeting today. As usual, there were more NFA employees than NFA members attending.
The meeting lasted about 30-minutes and was very focused on issues surrounding the MF Global failure and crisis. Dan Roth, NFA President listed NFA actions by breaking them into three categories:
1. Things that the NFA might be able to do differently in co-operation with other SROs.
2. Things that the NFA can do differently by changing their own rules.
3. Things that are outside the authority of the NFA, but might be done differently if the industry makes the need for change clear.
Several things that are being discussed with the committee of SROs sound like good ideas, and might not be so difficult to accomplish: (i) requiring seg investment detail reports to be filed more often and perhaps even displayed on NFA's website; (ii) performing more frequent spot checks for seg compliance; (iii) instantaneous reporting and identification of disbursements authorized by certain employees of an FCM.
NFA is looking into rule changes that would make it easier for IBs to do due diligence on their FCM. And finally, perhaps industry groups can work together to try to get some changes made in the bankruptcy code.
To discuss the meeting further, or any of the issues raised, please contact me at melinda@futuresrep.com
Regards, Melinda
Melinda Schramm, Chairman
NIBA
