| 30 July 2009

Interbank FX, a forex dealer headquartered in Utah, was slapped with a fine of $225,000 by the NFA for multiple violations, stemming mostly from a lack of oversight and compliance. Todd Crosland and Amanda Albretson, both principals at Interbank FX, were named in the order. Albretson was a former compliance director for the company.

The complaint was lodged by NFA this month and settled almost immediately. At issue was a lack of oversight in three areas. First, Interbank FX failed to set up and supervise a sufficient anti-money laundering program, which is required by the NFA.

Second, Interbank failed to adequately "supervise" some of the marketing material created by non-Member solicitors. A non-Member solicitor is typically an organization that is not registered with the NFA that creates promotional materials designed to introduce new accounts to dealers. Because these arrangements often include a payment to the introducing party, the dealer is on the hook to supervise those materials for NFA compliance.

Third, the NFA's complaint states that Crosland and Albretson just failed to supervise Interbank's activities in general.

In addition to the fine, Interbank has 180 days to submit to the NFA an independent review of its trading platforms, to be conducted by an outside party.

Albretson is essentially on a one year probation. If she meets the NFA's supervisory guidelines for one year the charges will be dropped by the NFA.

You can read the decision here.