Just read a very interesting comment letter to the CFTC by James Gellert of Rapid Ratings:
http://comments.www.cftc.gov/PublicComments/ViewComment.aspx?id=58346&SearchText=
Mr. Gellert makes the following comment about the benefits of FCM’s being required to disclose their audited financials:
Mr. Gellert’s point about the difficulty of forging financial documents using the kind of standards that publicly traded companies use is well taken. Had PFG been forced to use such standards Wasendorf’s scam would have likely been caught long before July of 2012. Furthermore, ratings agencies like Rapid could break down the data in a manner that average investors could more easily understand. Although, we disagree that only ratings agencies be allowed to see such data. We believe any trader who opens an account with a FCM or Forex Dealer should be able to judge for themselves a firm’s financial health.
You can make your feelings known to CFTC by posting comments here:
http://comments.www.cftc.gov/PublicComments/CommentForm.aspx?id=1250
http://comments.www.cftc.gov/PublicComments/ViewComment.aspx?id=58346&SearchText=
Mr. Gellert makes the following comment about the benefits of FCM’s being required to disclose their audited financials:
Would Mr. Wasendorf have been as ready to invent financials if his customers had demanded full, audited balance sheets and income statements all along? Would Mr. Wasendorf have been able to compose such reports with sufficient skill as to withstand rigorous third-party examination over twenty years? Rapid Ratings recalls that, by applying large numbers of interrelated calculations to the published reports of Enron, our firm was able to detect vivid inefficiencies entirely inconsistent with the investment grade ratings that Enron enjoyed from the...
Mr. Gellert’s point about the difficulty of forging financial documents using the kind of standards that publicly traded companies use is well taken. Had PFG been forced to use such standards Wasendorf’s scam would have likely been caught long before July of 2012. Furthermore, ratings agencies like Rapid could break down the data in a manner that average investors could more easily understand. Although, we disagree that only ratings agencies be allowed to see such data. We believe any trader who opens an account with a FCM or Forex Dealer should be able to judge for themselves a firm’s financial health.
You can make your feelings known to CFTC by posting comments here:
http://comments.www.cftc.gov/PublicComments/CommentForm.aspx?id=1250
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