Nasdaq unit reaches $22M settlement with CFTC over supervision failures

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) fined a Nasdaq subsidiary $22 million over allegedly misleading the public, regulators, and its own compliance staff about the details of a trader incentive program.

Nasdaq Futures, which voluntarily allowed its CFTC registration as a designated contract market to lapse in 2020, allegedly did not fully disclose the details of the incentive program, made false and misleading statements about it, and failed to properly supervise it, the CFTC said in a press release Thursday.

Nasdaq Futures launched the NFX exchange in 2015, trading in energy futures. One incentive program, a Designated Market Maker program, was disclosed to the public and the CFTC as “an incentive program that would pay a fixed monthly stipend to market makers,” the CFTC said in its order.