The increase came into effect on December 21 2007 but before then the NFA had already been clamping down on firms not meeting its criteria.
Among the companies it took emergency enforcement actions against in early December were One World Capital Group and Forex Liquidity. The investigation into One World was prompted by complaints that clients were having difficulty withdrawing funds. In November, the NFA had fined One World $100,000, which was due to be paid by the end of December 2007. An additional fine, payable by February 1 2008, was imposed after it was found that the company had failed to meet minimum adjusted net capital requirements and to maintain books and records. The NFA also found that One World had used deficient promotional material and had failed to adopt and enforce written procedures to supervise the use of its promotional material.
In the case of Forex Liquidity, the NFA discovered that although the company had claimed to possess assets with a market value of $41 million, most of this was in the form of a bond issued by ABN Amro that it did not hold sufficient control over. Forex Liquidity’s president, Robert Gray, claimed that he was working on transferring the bond to a US bank, but when asked which one, the NFA says, "Gray was unable to recall the full name of the bank, but indicated it included the word ‘Commonwealth’ in its name."