§ 155.4 Trading standards for introducing brokers. ( a ) Each introducing broker shall, at a minimum, establish and enforce internal rules, procedures and controls to: ( 1 ) EInsure, to the extent possible, that each order received from a customer which is executable at or near the market price is transmitted to the futures commission merchant carrying the account of the customer before any order in any future or in any commodity option in the same commodity for any proprietary account, any other account in which an affiliated person has an interest, or any account for which an affiliated person may originate orders without the prior specific consent of the account owner, if the affiliated person has gained knowledge of the customer's order prior to the transmission to the floor of the appropriate contract market of the order for a proprietary account, an account in which the affiliated person has an interest, or an account in which the affiliated person may originate orders without the prior specific consent of the account owner; and
( 2 ) Prevent affiliated persons from placing orders, directly or indirectly, with any futures commission merchant in a manner designed to circumvent the provisions of paragraph (a)(1) of this section.
( b ) No introducing broker or any of its affiliated persons shall: ( 1 ) Disclose that an order of another person is being held by the introducing broker or any of its affiliated persons, unless such disclosure is necessary to the effective execution of such order or is made at the request of an authorized representative of the Commission, the contract market on which such order is to be executed, or a futures association registered with the Commission pursuant to section 17 of the Act; or
( 2 ) ( i ) Knowingly take, directly or indirectly, the other side of any order of another person revealed to the introducing broker or any of its affiliated persons by reason of their relationship to such other person, except with such other persons's prior consent and in conformity with contract market rules approved by or certified to the Commission.
( ii ) In the case of a customer who does not qualify as an “institutional customer” as defined in § 1.3 of this chapter, an introducing broker must obtain the customer's prior consent through a signed acknowledgment, which may be accomplished in accordance with § 1.55(d) of this chapter.
( c ) No affiliated person of an introducing broker shall have an account, directly or indirectly, with any futures commission merchant unless: ( 1 ) Such affiliated person receives written authorization to maintain such an account from a person designated by the introducing broker with which such person is affiliated with responsibility for the surveillance over such account pursuant to paragraph (a)(2) of this section; and
( 2 ) Copies of all statements for such account and of all written records prepared by such futures commission merchant upon receipt of orders for such account pursuant to § 155.3(c)(2) are transmitted on a regular basis to the introducing broker with which such person is affiliated.
[48 FR 35304, Aug. 3, 1983, as amended at 66 FR 53523, Oct. 23, 2001; 70 FR 5924, Feb. 4, 2005; 77 FR 66349, Nov. 2, 2012; 83 FR 7997, Feb. 23, 2018; 89 FR 71820, Sept. 4, 2024]