The Tide is Rising for US FCMs: US FCM 2016
The US Future Commission Merchant (“FCM”) community has been under constant pressure for the last 8 years. This pressure has come in the form of epic new regulation, stifling capital rules, declining number of players, lousy interest rates, and increasing costs that are all adversely affecting profitability. Despite this wave of challenges, the leaders of the FCM community and their bosses are finally spinning a positive outlook for the industry.
For TABB Group’s 2016 US FCM study, we interviewed business leaders who are specifically responsible for managing the FCMs and driving the Futures industry forward. We interviewed managers at 9 of the top 10 FCMs in terms of Client Segregated Assets, as well as 7 additional FCMs. The firms we interviewed represent 77% of total client segregated assets of $127 billion as of June 2016. This year’s study was specifically slanted to the traditional Futures side of the business since we feel the emphasis may have been clouded with all the focus on OTC clearing.
Key points covered in the report include:
- The challenges facing the FCM business and how the tide is rising.
- The size of the FCM community and the concentration of segregated assets.
- Regulations are still driving up technology costs as firms look to third party vendors for help.
- Commission benchmarking, profitability and revenue analysis, and client education.
- Trading platforms and the how the vendor landscape has changed.
- Trends and initiatives used to manage mounting capital charges.
- The importance of client service.
- Who are the up and coming FCMs?
- Derivatives
- Futures