September 24, 2013

CFTC Orders Vision Financial Markets LLC to Pay a $140,000 Civil Monetary Penalty for Failing to Diligently Supervise its Employees

Washington, DC – The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) today issued an Order filing and simultaneously settling charges against Vision Financial Markets LLC (Vision), a CFTC-registered Futures Commission Merchant (FCM) headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut, for failing to diligently supervise by failing to aggregate a customer’s multiple accounts, failing to use the proper delta, and utilizing a faulty software program in calculating the customer’s net position. The CFTC Order requires Vision to pay a civil monetary penalty of $140,000 and to cease and desist from violating the CFTC’s Regulation 166.3.

The Order finds that in May 2012, Vision failed to diligently supervise its employees in the handling of a customer’s commodity interest accounts. Specifically, the Order finds that Vision failed to aggregate a customer’s multiple trading accounts held at Vision when calculating that customer’s feeder cattle futures speculative positions traded on the CME and that Vision failed to use the proper delta in calculating this customer’s aggregate futures equivalent net positions. The Order further finds that Vision relied on a faulty back-office software program, which incorrectly calculated aggregate futures equivalent net positions and which was used to identify potential speculative limit violations for all of its customer accounts. The software program was not corrected until six months after Vision discovered the software program’s calculation error, according to the Order.

CFTC Division of Enforcement staff members responsible for this case are Michael R. Berlowitz, Mark Picard, Trevor Kokal, David Acevedo, Lenel Hickson, Jr., Stephen J. Obie and Vincent McGonagle. Assistance was provided by Margaret Sweet of the CFTC Office of Data Technology.

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Last Updated: September 24, 2013