Market News

CFTC Slaps $275,000 Penalty on CMS Forex over Capitalization Flaws

Apr 08 2014
By Forexbrokerz.com Forexbrokerz.com

The United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) on Monday imposed a $275,000 penalty on Forex broker Capital Market Services, LLC (CMS) over failures to meet requirements for the capitalization of Futures Commission Merchants (FCM), Retail Foreign Exchange Dealers (RFED) and FDMs.

The watchdog has found that the broker had trouble meeting the capital requirements for at least 17 months in the period from March 2009 until October 2012. At some point, the deficiency was massive at $13 million. Well, now you must be asking yourselves what kind of a requirement we are talking about. The minimum capital requirement for an FCM is at $1 million, but for FCMs that are also registered as RFEDs (these are the retail brokers, putting it bluntly) the sum rises to more than $20 million. For CMS Forex the sum was $21 million.

The order from the CFTC is not only imposing the penalty but is also settling the charges against CMS, with the regulator admitting the firm's cooperation and the measures undertaken to tackle the deficiencies.

This case highlights how rough the regulatory climate has become for US Forex brokers – the number of Futures Commission Merchants in the country has fallen recently, with many brokers choosing to quit the US Forex market. One example is Alpari US, which in September 2013, announced the closure of its US retail FX operations. And just a couple of days ago it became clear that Institutional Liquidity LLC is also leaving the list of FCMs and is transferring its business to Advantage Futures.

The capital requirements for US Forex brokers are amid the most stringent in the world. They only lag behind those in Switzerland, where a Forex broker should have a capital of at least CHF 20 million ($22.5 million). On the other hand, we have countries like Cyprus where the minimum capital requirement stands way lower at $1 million.

TAGS: cms cms forex broker capital market services us forex broker cftc nfa capitalization capital requirements forex regulation forex rules net capital retail forex broker futures commission merchant

More news about CMS

CySec regulated RoboForex CY launches Metatrader 5 and cTrader Aug 14 2015 11:42:04
NFA fines CMS for multiple VT trading platform crashes Jul 14 2011 21:00:00
The Newest Infographic Developed by CMS Forex Jun 08 2011 21:00:00

Broker	Advantages
	FXTM a regulated forex broker (regulated by CySEC, FCA and FSC), offering ECN trading on MT4 an MT5 platforms. Traders can start trading with as little as $10 and take advantage of tight fixed and variable spreads, flexible leverage and swap-free accounts.


	XM is broker with great bonuses and promotions. Currently we are loving its $30 no deposit bonus and deposit bonus up to $5000. Add to this the fact that it’s EU-regulated and there’s nothing more you can ask for.
	FXCM is one of the biggest forex brokers in the world, licensed and regulated on four continents. FXCM wins our admirations with its over 200,000 active live accounts and daily trading volumes of over $10 billion.
	FxPro is a broker we are particularly keen on: it’s regulated in the UK, offers Metatrader 4 (MT4) and cTrader – where the spreads start at 0 pips, Level II Pricing and Full Market Depth. And the best part? With FxPro you get negative balance protection.
	FBS is a broker with cool marketing and promotions. It runs an loyalty program, offers a $100 no-deposit bonus for all new clients outside EU willing to try out its services, and an FBS MasterCard is also available for faster deposits and withdrawals.
	FxChoice is a IFSC regulated forex broker, serving clients from all over the world. It offers premium trading conditions, including high leverage, low spreads and no hedging, scalping and FIFO restrictions.
	HotForex is a EU Regulated broker, offering wide variety of trading accounts, including Auto, Social and Zero spread accounts. The minimum intial deposit for a Micro account is only $50 and is combined with 1000:1 leverage - one of the highest in the industry.
	Exness is a leading forex broker, offering MT4 and MT5 platforms. Traders can take advantage from a true ECN environment and trade on ultra tight spreads, starting from 0 pips.

Broker	Country	Regulation	Platform	Min Deposit	Review
	Cyprus, UK, Mauritius	CySec, FCA, FSC	MT4, MT5, Web	$10	Review Website
	Cyprus, SVG	CySEC	MT5, Web, cTrader	$100	Review Website
	Australia, Cyprus	ASIC, CySEC	MT4, MT5, Iress	$100	Review Website
	Cyprus, Australia	CySec, ASIC	MT4, MT5	$5	Review Website
	UK, Australia, South Africa	FCA, ASIC, FSCA	MT4, Trading Station, NinjaTrader	$50	Review Website
	UK, Cyprus, UAE, South Africa	FCA, CySEC, DFSA, FSB	MT4, MT5, FxPro Markets, cTrader	$100	Review Website
	Cyprus	CySEC	MT4, MT5, Web	$1	Review Website
	Belize	IFSC	MT4, MT5	$100	Review Website
	Cyprus, UK, South Africa, UAE	CySec, FCA, FSCA, DFSA	MT4, MT5, Web	$5	Review Website
	Cyprus, UK	CySEC, FCA	MT4, MT5	$1	Review Website
	UK	FCA	MT5	$5	Review Website
	UK	FCA	MT4, Web, MT4 for Mac	$100	Review Website
	Australia, UK	ASIC, FCA	MT4, MT5, cTrader	$200	Review Website

More Forex Market News

China to launch bank backed digital currency in Shenzhen and Suzhou

Dec 09 2019 18:20:09

China's central bank, the People’s Bank of China (PboC), is proceeding with its plan to launch a central bank- backed digital currency (CBDC) in two major cities – the 14 million megalopolis of Shenzhen, which neighbors Hong Kong, and Suzhou - a historical city west of Shanghai. Read more

PlatiniumFX and Capital GMA end up on CONSOB’s warning list

Dec 09 2019 16:47:02

The latest additions to the warning list of Italian financial regulator CONSOB (Commissione Nazionale per le Societa e la Borsa) are PlatiniumFX, Capital GMA, and several other unregulated brokers. Read more

CFTC warns about 20 new forex and binary options scams

Dec 06 2019 17:46:44

The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) updated its warnings list with twenty new forex and binary options scam websites, bringing the total blacklisted websites to nearly 150. Read more

Thai authorities seize over 15 million baht from Forex-3D scammers

Dec 06 2019 10:38:02

Officials from the Thai Department of Special Investigation (DSI) seized over 15 million baht from the owner of Forex- 3D Ponzi scheme and his associates, the Bangkok Post reported on Thursday. Read more

EU finance ministers agreed to block Libra

Dec 05 2019 13:46:59

EU finance ministers have agreed that private digital currencies like Libra – the crypto coin Facebook plans to launch in 2020, should not be allowed in the European Union until all possible risks are identified and properly addressed, Reuters reports. Read more

CFTC looks for a binary options scammer who defrauded investors with $3,8 mln

Dec 03 2019 17:20:38

The United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) apparently can not locate Peter Szatmari, who defrauded nearly 4 million USD from binary options investors. Read more

Bulgarian court allows the extradition of Gal Barak to Austria

Dec 02 2019 17:51:14

After a successful operation of the police in Austria, Germany, the Czech Republic and Bulgaria has lead in February to the arrests of several financial executives, among which the Izraeli citizen Gal Barak, who is charged of orchestrating an online trading scam, that allegedly has defrauded Europea... Read more

Italy’s CONSOB blacklists EvolutionBrokers and KapitalSwiss

Dec 02 2019 15:30:33

Italy's financial regulator Commissione Nazionale per le Societa e la Borsa (CONSOB) has blacklisted a bunch of unregulated brokers today, including EvolutionBrokers, and KapitalSwiss. CONSOB also ordered internet providers to block access to their websites. Read more

91 arrested in Indonesia over an online investment scam

Nov 29 2019 10:32:00

The Indonesian police has arrested 85 Chinese nationals and 6 Indonesians over an online scam that defrauded victims of over 36 billion Indonesian rupiah (2,56 million USD). Read more

Second person arrested in connection to OneCoin money laundering

Nov 28 2019 17:36:36

David R. Pike, a chief operating officer of Fenero Funds was arrested by the U.S. authorities in connection to laundering some 400 million USD, stolen through the notorious OneCoin Ponzi scheme. Pike appears to have worked with the convicted OneCoin layer Mark S. Read more

TOP FOREX BROKERS

BINARY OPTIONS BROKERS

LAST COMMENTED

BROKER LISTS

Broker types

Brokers by platform

Brokers by payment options

Brokers by account types

Brokers by spreads

Signals & Social trading

Brokers by country

Brokers by regulation

Gold, oil, options brokers

Other

CRYPTOCURRENCY EXCHANGES

de | cn | ru