In early January, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC)—the U.S. government
agency responsible for the regulation of retail foreign exchange—proposed new rules for offexchange
retail foreign exchange. If enacted in their current form, these rules would have an
enormous impact on clients trading with firms regulated by the CFTC, firms such as FXCM
LLC. However, clients trading through FXCM LTD (our UK regulated entity), FXCM Asia (our
Hong Kong regulated entity) or FXCM Australia (our Australian regulated entity) would not be
affected. Your account is currently with FXCM LLC.
The proposed rules call for restricting leverage to 10-to-1, even for the most
widely traded currency pairs. To read the full fifty page text on the proposed
rules please visit:
http://www.cftc.gov/ucm/groups/public/@lrfederalregister/documents/file/2010-456a.pdf.
While FXCM believes that increased regulation brings credibility to our growing industry, we
feel that imposing onerous regulations is counterproductive in the marketplace. FXCM is
actively lobbying against restricting leverage to 10-to-1. We are working with other Forex
Dealer Members, as part of the Foreign Exchange Dealers Coalition, to provide a united
industry front to lobby congress and the CFTC.
What can I do?
We are in a critical sixty-day period ending on March 22, 2010, during which
the CFTC will accept comments from the public, including industry
participants, on proposed rule changes. If you would like to voice your
concern for or against the proposal, you can contact the CFTC directly by
sending an e-mail to secretary@cftc.gov with “Regulation of Retail Forex” in
the subject line. The CFTC will publish all comments received without
change (including all personal information provided) on their website
www.cftc.gov. The CFTC, in its discretion, may choose to amend the
proposed rules based on the comments received.
FXCM LLC clients also have the option, at any time, to open accounts with any one of
FXCM’s regulated entities, including FXCM LTD, FXCM Asia, or FXCM Australia. These
entities provide flexible leverage levels and are not impacted by CFTC rules.