Futures commission merchant is the regulated intermediary that accepts futures orders and customer funds for margining trades.
A Futures Commission Merchant (FCM) is a regulated futures-market intermediary that solicits or accepts orders for futures, options on futures, swaps, and related commodity-interest transactions and accepts money, securities, or other property to margin or secure those trades.
For a trader, hedger, or risk manager, the FCM is the account-carrying control point. It affects customer onboarding, risk disclosure, margin calls, customer-fund segregation, trade give-ups, clearing access, and how quickly a position can be supported or liquidated during stress.
| Area | Finance relevance |
|---|---|
| Account opening | Customer documentation, risk disclosure, permissions, and account type. |
| Order acceptance | Whether the customer can access a product, exchange, or clearing path. |
| Customer funds | Margin deposits, segregation rules, secured amounts, and funding controls. |
| Margin process | Initial margin, variation margin, calls, deficits, and liquidation rights. |
| Reporting | Trade confirmations, statements, open positions, collateral, and fees. |
| Regulatory status | CFTC registration, NFA membership, and applicable exchange membership. |
The CFTC’s FCM page explains registration, NFA membership, minimum standards, and customer-fund requirements. The CFTC also maintains a customer-funds page for FCM segregation, and NFA provides an FCM member page.
An introducing broker may solicit or accept orders, but it does not accept customer money or other property to margin the trades. That distinction is central. If the issue is where customer margin sits, which firm issues a margin call, or who carries the account, the FCM is usually the controlling party.