Part V. Forex Scam - Emergency Call.

And why does the US need two equal regulators, what’s the difference?

 They are not equal. While CFTC is a government authority, the NFA is a self-regulated independent organization, which means that it financed by itself and not by taxpayers from the government's budget. Since the government authority is CFTC, the NFA stands under CFTC oversight. Still they are designed to act together. The NFA also works to prevent frauds and illegal action on financial markets, controls NFA members to meet regulatory requirements and be conducive to the overall development and proper functioning of futures markets.

It also provides mediation and arbitration for resolving consumer complaints. The NFA is headquartered in Chicago, IL and also maintains an office in New York City.

In fact to make protection of individual investors stronger, every firm (or even individual) who conducts futures or options on futures business with public has to be registered as a CFTC and NFA member. According to the NFA classification these firms or individuals who provide trading services to public could be:

- Futures Commercial Merchants (FCM);

- Introducing Brokers (IB);

- Commodity Trading Advisors (CTA);

- Commodity Pool Operators (CPO)

To get access to the public’s money or provide them any services on futures markets firms and individuals have to pass through the registration process, fill out a regular statement and constantly meet regulator’s requirements. That is not simple. To accomplish that those firms have to be really serious.

As with the CFTC, the NFA is developing and changing. We’ve already said about online BASIC program in 1998. In the beginning of 2000s NFA starts to accept claims online and launched registration online as well.

Here is website of the : NFA - National Futures Association

 And what about other countries? Do they have authorities of the same kind?

 Yes sure. Almost all developed countries have ones…many emerging countries also have them. For example:

- Russian authority is FSFM –Federal Service for Financial Markets,

- Federal Securities Commission, Comissao de Valores Mobiliarios (CVM) – in Brazil, etc.

But let’s return to more developed countries. In UK this is Financial Services Authority that was founded in 2001. It fulfills the same function as NFA and CFTC and has its own members that are subject of its rules and requirements. Its website is Financial Services Authority

While in the US you can report about financial fraud directly on websites of the CFTC or NFA, in other countries there could be other sources to do that. For instance, in UK you may try to apply through “Action Fraud”.

Switzerland is a core of world banking and financial services and markets as well. So, that is no surprise that particularly Switzerland has a regulator with authority over banking and financials for a long time already. The Federal Department of Finance (FDF) was founded as far back as 1848. Also Switzerland has another authority, that is the Swiss Financial Markets Authority (FINMA) and it was formed relatively recently, in 2007. While first one (FDF) is a general supervisor of overall financials, particularly FINMA regulates as banks, securities dealers and exchanges.

As we’ve said, other countries also have regulators, so, let’s just list some of them here:

- Germany: The Federal Financial Supervisory Authority BAFIN (Bundesanstalt für Finanzdienstleistungsaufsicht)

- France: AMF (The Autorité des marchés financiers)

- Australia: Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC). Here is also exists such authority as Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, where you can report about fraud or any scam action.

- Hong Kong: HK Securities and Futures Commission

- Japan: Financial Services Agency (FSA)

In fact, they are many well-known and easy to find authorities, just use Google to search. So you will have no problems, if you would like to find their website once. Although I wish you do not have real reasons to do it.