NFA Charges eDeal Market with Operating as Retail FX Broker Without Registration

Today's edition of the Investor Newsletter from the United States National Futures Association（NFA） was published. The document contains information about the latest enforcement actions taken against NFA, including one against eDeal Market LLC.

NFA's Business Conduct Committee (BCC) has issued a Complaint against eDeal Market LLC and Nithya Narasimhan, charging them with failing to supervise and failing to cooperate fully and promptly with an NFA examination.

eDeal is also accused of acting as an FCM/RFED without registration, exemption, failing to list two principals of eDeal and allowing the other to act as an AP for eDeal while not being registered as such; making untrue representations about NFA; and misleading promotional material.

eDeal's headquarters are in Chennai, India. The firm was a CPO/CTA member from August 14, 2019 to December 7, 2021, when the firm's NFA membership and CFTC registration statuses were withdrawn.

Nithya Narasimhan was identified the COO of the company during the relevant period.

NFA began an examination of eDeal in September 2021. It found several flaws. Most significantly, eDeal and Narasimhan failed to cooperate fully with NFA's exam. The exam found that eDeal operated as a retail Forex broker without being registered with CFTC.

A statement on eDeal's website, with the address – fxedeal.com, claimed that the company is a "trusted broker for multiple asset classes, including Forex, Indices, Commodities…". The website offered clients the ability to choose from different platforms, including MetaTrader 4. NFA noted that Forex dealers typically use these platforms.

When NFA questioned Narasimhan about the firm's operations, she indicated that the firm provides a trading platform for clients in India and the UAE only but is not operating as Forex dealer. However, NFA found that the "Open Live Account" section of eDeal's website permitted US customers to open an account to trade Forex and other products, until around November 2021 when the website was changed.

NFA also found that the website the firm used previously – edealfx.com, likewise offered US customers the option of opening a trading account through a drop-down menu that listed "United States".

eDeal was charged with violating NFA Compliance Rule 2-2(i).

eDeal could face severe penalties. These include a maximum $500,000 fine for each violation, and a bar or suspension from NFA membership.

Source: RawNews