- CFTC & NFA REGISTRANTS AND APPLICANTS
Fifteen years inside the regulator. Now on your side of the table.
In financial regulation and accounting
Division of Clearing and Risk — Parts 38, 39 & 40
Member firm examinations
Virtual firm · English & Spanish
Why firms call us instead of a national accounting firm
Most people who understand CFTC and NFA requirements are lawyers. Most people who can produce a segregation calculation or a Form 1-FR-FCM have never met a regulator.
Malcolm Alexander-Neal has done both. That combination is why registration counsel hand us the accounting half of an application, and why early-stage firms get a working finance function months before they could hire one.
U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission
Division of Clearing and Risk. Oversight of derivatives clearing organizations under Parts 38, 39 and 40 of the Commodity Exchange Act.
National Futures Association
Examined member firms. We know what an examiner opens first and what documentation satisfies them.
Mizuho Securities USA
Derivatives and digital-asset accounting inside a large regulated intermediary.
Mac Neal LLC since 2013
M.S. Accounting, Wayne State University. B.S. Finance, Michigan State University.
Start small, scope properly, then build
Every engagement begins with the same two-to-three week diagnostic, so nothing expensive gets priced before it is understood.
Readiness Diagnostic
Know what registration will actually cost and how long it will take, before you commit to anything.
- Registration category recommendation with the capital math
- FCM vs. introducing broker, guaranteed vs. non-guaranteed
- Gap assessment against what NFA actually reviews
- Build plan with sequence and dates
- Credited in full against a build started within 60 days
Registration Build-Out
The financial and control side of your application, built to the regulation rather than retrofitted to it later.
- Financial statements and capital documentation
- Adjusted net capital computation and capital planning
- Books and chart of accounts built to the rule
- Supervisory, recordkeeping and risk policies
- Systems specification before you buy the stack
Financial Operations
We are your regulatory finance function until it makes sense to hire one.
- Daily segregation and secured-amount calculations
- Continuous net capital monitoring with early warning
- Form 1-FR-FCM and the periodic reporting cycle
- Reconciliations, month-end close and the books
- Recordkeeping that survives an examination
Built for filing, not just for advice
We recently built an automation prototype for newly registering firms. It assembles the financial operations data, prepares the regulatory filings, and handles submission to the CFTC and NFA.
Most consultants hand you a memo and an invoice. We hand you a working process — which matters when the filings are recurring, the deadlines do not move, and the cost of doing it by hand compounds every month.
Ask for a walkthrough- Assemble — pulls the financial operations data from your books and clearing records.
- Compute — runs the period calculations and flags anything approaching a threshold.
- Prepare — populates the filing in the required format.
- Submit — handles upload to the CFTC and NFA and archives the evidence.
Registered, applying, or still deciding
The work is different at each stage. So is the price.
Futures Commission Merchants
Segregation, secured amount, Form 1-FR-FCM and the capital planning behind a $1,000,000 minimum.
Introducing Brokers
Guaranteed or non-guaranteed — we model both against your volume so the choice is a number, not a preference.
CPOs & CTAs
Registration or exemption, pool accounting architecture, and the reporting cycle that follows.
Exchanges & Clearing
Core principle gap assessment on the financial and control side, from someone who reviewed them at the CFTC.
Approaching your first NFA examination?
We run a mock examination the way NFA runs one, and give you a gap list with a dated remediation plan. Most useful in the twelve months after approval — before your first cycle, not during it.
Schedule an exam-readiness callWorking with registration counsel
You know who is applying months before it is public. You cannot produce their financial statements, compute their net capital, build their books, or sit through their first examination with them — and handing that to someone who gets it wrong reflects on you.
We work behind your firm, under your engagement letter, on the accounting and financial deliverables you do not provide. We do not compete for legal work, we will say plainly when something sits outside our scope, and we will run any client fee estimate past you before it reaches them.