NFA Registration Approved: Your First 90-Day Plan

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The NFA registration approval notice (which we defined here in What is NFA Registration) reads like the end of something. And after the slow months of filings and fingerprint cards, you've earned a day of treating it that way. Just one, though.Because the NFA doesn't waste time or mess around. As soon as you're done popping the champagne, the organization generally tries to visit a new member firm within a year of it becoming active.Some of us at Michael Coglianese, CPA, P.C., paid firms just like yours those very same first-year visits from inside NFA, so trust us when we tell you the following. The firms that handled those visits best didn't do it because they were smarter or more talented. They were just the best prepared. By the time an examiner sat down, the boring routines already existed, had owners, and left a paper trail.Everything worth doing in the first 90 days after NFA registration builds toward that.

Week 1: Run Every Name Through BASIC

You may not have many customers yet, but the contracts will already be arriving. A guarantee agreement lands in your inbox. A marketing firm offers to bring in business. A lead provider appears out of nowhere with a list of prospects and a deal that sounds easy enough.That's where NFA Bylaw 1101 can catch a new firm flat-footed.Before you sign anything, check the other party's registration status in BASIC. NFA members can't do business with a firm that should be registered with the CFTC but isn't. Whether you knew about the problem rarely changes the conversation afterward.Set the procedure now, while there are only a few names to check. Decide who runs the search, save a dated copy of the result, and keep it with the agreement. NFA's guidance expects a documented BASIC review whenever registration could be required.The examiner who eventually asks about your lead provider wants a dated record, not your recollection of a phone call.

Month 1: Put Net Capital on a Daily Sheet

Once the contracts are clean, move straight to capital. That's usually the next place an examiner looks, and is where a firm can feel perfectly healthy while already sitting below the line.CFTC Regulation 1.17 requires at least $45,000 in adjusted net capital for an independent IB and $1 million for an FCM. The danger is the word adjusted. Receivables, prepaid expenses, and unsecured balances may look fine on your balance sheet, then get discounted or removed from the regulatory calculation.The filing schedule fools people too. An IB may file twice a year, but Regulation 1.12 requires notice the day capital drops below the minimum.So track it daily. Use one worksheet, give it one owner, and keep a cushion. As we covered in the five first-year audit mistakes, one receivable in the wrong bucket can create a problem before anyone sees it coming.

Month 2: Write the AML Program and the ISSP

Once the capital sheet is running, the next risk is assuming the daily work is the whole compliance program. It isn't.By month two, write the two documents NFA will eventually ask to see: your AML program and your information systems security program (ISSP). This is the easiest they'll ever be to draft because the firm is still small, the process is still clear, and you can describe what people really do without inventing a corporate machine that doesn't exist.The AML program needs an officer, training, customer due diligence, beneficial ownership checks, and an independent review. The ISSP covers cybersecurity, senior approval, annual reviews, and staff training.Keep both plain and usable. Examiners will compare them with the way your firm runs. A borrowed template full of someone else's titles and procedures will raise more questions than a five-page plan your team can follow.

Month 3: Set the Filing Calendar and Pick Your Auditor

Once the AML program and ISSP are written, pull every deadline out of your head and put it in one place. By month three, already too many dates exist to run from memory.An FCM files Form 1-FR-FCM monthly. An independent IB files semiannually. The Member Questionnaire comes due on your membership anniversary, and the Self-Examination Questionnaire needs a real annual review, plus a signed attestation kept on file.Then there's the deadline that can wreck your spring: the certified annual financial statement. Independent IBs get 90 days after fiscal year-end. FCMs get 60.Choose your year-end carefully and hire the auditor now. We've seen firms wait until month 11, then discover that a first audit involves far more cleanup than anyone expected. By then, the calendar isn't helping you plan. It's counting down.

Before Day 90: Invite NFA to Come to You

With the calendar built and the auditor booked, make one more move before day 90: ask NFA for an educational visit.Most new firms never do. The visit is voluntary, free, and usually happens six to nine months after membership begins. NFA staff spend a day walking through your operation, pointing out weak spots, and answering the questions you don't want to be asking for the first time during an examination.Request it early and it should land around midyear, after your procedures have had time to meet real life but before bad habits settle in.That visit also gives NFA an early look at how your firm works, which is part of the bargain. Its staff gets context for a future exam, and you get time to fix whatever they flag before that exam ever starts.Better to hear that a procedure needs work during an educational visit than months later with an examiner already in the room.

When the Phone Rings in Month 11

NFA usually gives firms about two weeks' notice before an exam, though an FCM holding customer funds may get less. By then, there's no time to build the compliance program you meant to build. You're either pulling clean records from the folders you set up in month one, or trying to remember why a receivable was classified that way nine months ago.That's why the first 90 days carry so much weight. The BASIC checks, daily capital sheet, AML program, ISSP, filing calendar, and early auditor call all become part of the same answer when NFA asks how your firm operates.At Michael Coglianese, CPA, P.C., we've helped IBs and FCMs prepare for that call for more than 35 years. Our founder began his career conducting examinations inside NFA's compliance department, and our team now handles the regulatory consulting, accounting, capital calculations, and audit work that keep firms ready.Your NFA registration approval date started the clock. Contact us to put the wheels in motion now to start preparing.

NFA Registration FAQs

How soon after NFA registration will my firm be examined?

NFA generally tries to examine a new member firm within its first year of active membership — usually with about two weeks' notice, and sometimes less for an FCM holding customer funds.

What should a firm do first after NFA registration is approved?

Before signing any agreement, run the counterparty through BASIC. NFA Bylaw 1101 bars members from doing business with firms that should be registered with the CFTC but aren't, and examiners expect a dated record of each check.

What will NFA ask to see after registration?

The core set: your documented BASIC reviews, daily net capital worksheet, AML program, ISSP, filing calendar with signed attestations, and your certified annual financial statement.

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