An unregulated margin FX broker claims to be using the ‘standards’ of regulator: NFA?
Can we trust them?
StrategemFX, the Belize-based provider of online foreign exchange services, this week went to the extraordinary lengths of documenting its compliance with the security and capacity standards imposed by the National Futures Association (NFA) on US-based forex providers. “To our knowledge, we are the only non-US provider to voluntarily test and document our compliance with the standards imposed on our US-based counterparts,” said Lionel Welch, counsel for StrategemFX. “We wanted to prove to clients that we can provide the best of both worlds: the trust and security of compliance with US standards and the high leverage, low overhead, and privacy of offshore.”
Bain Markets, a US-based provider of audit and technical services to global exchanges, conducted the audit during March and April 2012 to determine whether the StrategemFX electronic trading system (ETS) met the NFA Compliance Rule 2-36(e), Supervision of the Use of Electronic Trading Systems. During the course of the audit enhancements were made to Strategem’s Business Continuity/Disaster Recovery protocols, but the by the end of the audit it was documented in a 55-page report that StrategemFX meets or exceeds this important standard intended to help forex providers maintain high levels of technical service and trading integrity.
The Bain Markets audit also validated the claim of StrategemFX that it is a true Straight Through Processor (STP), meaning that it does not employ a dealing desk to take positions against its own customers. Testing showed that trades were fully automated transactions, drawing on a minimum of 10 liquidity providers resulting in an average completion time under 2.50 seconds. “Strategem derives its income solely from modest fees per trade without betting against our customers,” said StrategemFX’s Andrew Godfrey. “Our strategy is a novel one in this business: to actually help our clients so we can retain their loyal patronage over the long run.”
OTC products have been blamed for the 2008 recession and new Dodd Frank and MIFID 2 regulations will put additional pressure on participants in US and the European Union.
Forexmagnates team covered the regulations and their impact on spot FX markets, available in the Q4 2011 quarterly report.
Hi Adil,
it is important not to conclude a causality between STP (Straight Through Processing), so automated processing of trades, with no taking position against client.
An automated dealer could be far more efficient than a human dealing desk…
Nicolas