OANDA Fined $600,000 by NFA Over Compliance Lapses and Misleading Promotions

Online forex broker OANDA Corporation has been ordered to pay a $600,000 fine following an investigation by the National Futures Association (NFA) into a series of regulatory breaches, including accounting shortfalls, insufficient customer safeguards, and misleading marketing around its cryptocurrency services.

According to the NFA's enforcement action, OANDA failed to maintain proper capital levels during a hedging program with its parent company between January and August 2023, bypassing key requirements such as collateral collection and accurate net capital calculations.

A pricing error caused by a faulty API feed also affected around 3,900 traders, leading to estimated customer losses of $430,000. OANDA has agreed to restitution of up to $428,592 to those affected.

The report also highlighted issues with security deposits on millions of trades involving the GBP and JPY currency pairs and criticized the firm for promoting crypto services under misleading pretenses, as trades were actually routed through an unregulated third party.

The NFA further cited weak internal controls and significant turnover in senior management - including four CEOs in recent years - as contributing to the firm's operational deficiencies. OANDA neither admitted nor denied the charges as part of the settlement and has a 30-day window to pay the fine.

This regulatory scrutiny comes as the company awaits the completion of its sale to FTMO Group​, announced earlier this year by its private equity owner, CVC Capital Partners.