National Futures Association

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
362960981
IRS 990 coverage
2009–2024
Official website data refreshed
Sep 2026
Forms available
Form 990 2024
Location
Chicago, IL, United States
Phone
312-781-1410 or 800-621-3570
Rating confidence
Limited

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$154,945,104
Expenses
$145,239,561
Assets
$252,045,557
Liabilities
$71,292,770

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

42 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • THOMAS SEXTON (PRESIDENT AND CEO)
  • REGINA THOELE (SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT (THRU 2/2025))
  • EDWARD DASSO (SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT)
  • TIMOTHY MCHENRY (SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT)
  • KAREN WUERTZ (SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT (THRU 2/2025))
  • MICHAEL OTTEN (SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, OTC)

Highest reported compensation

  • THOMAS SEXTON (PRESIDENT AND CEO): $1,320,571 total reported compensation
  • MICHAEL OTTEN (SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, OTC): $860,757 total reported compensation
  • CAROL WOODING (SR.VP, GC, AND SECRETARY): $848,940 total reported compensation

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

National Futures Association— is the industrywide, self-regulatory organization for the U.S. derivatives industry, providing innovative and effective regulatory programs. NFA offers training to regulators, exchanges and self-regulatory organizations from around the world on an as-requested basis. Market Regulation NFA provides regulatory services to designated contract markets (DCM) and swap execution facilities (SEF)—each of which has self-regulatory responsibilities to monitor trading on its platform. This publication includes NFA's FY 2021 financials and highlights significant staff accomplishments from the past fiscal year. This fiscal year's Annual Review is anchored by NFA's important mission and provides insight on staff's commitment to effective regulation, market integrity and culture. The report also highlights NFA's strong working relationship with other domestic and...

What it reported doing in 2024

Registrationnfa screens all firms and individuals wishing to register with the cftc and become nfa members. Nfa's registration department processed 282 firm registrations and over 4,428 individual registrations.registration investigation cases nfa's registration investigations group opened approximately 1,160 cases. These investigation cases are due to information obtained during nfa's background checks.(continued in schedule o)(continuance of part iii, line 4a)information center nfa's information center - a service nfa offers to members and the investing public - received 16,011 calls and responded to 4,175 emails.enforcement actions enforcement of nfa rules is critical to the effectiveness of the self-regulatory process. In fiscal year 2025: nfa's business conduct committee issued 14 complaints against 27 respondents. A number of these cases involved members and associates who failed to supervise, cooperate with nfa in an investigation or observe high standards of commercial honor and just and equitable principles of trade or comply with recordkeeping requirements.nfa's disciplinary panels issued 17 decisions and ordered 6 membership bars, 5 membership suspension, and nfa imposed over $2.2 million in regulatory fines.

Operating model

Revenue model
Other-operating. 96% of the money available for current operations came from other operating revenue.
Distribution model
Cannot be determined from the filing. The filing does not provide enough consistent spending detail to tell whether the nonprofit works directly or through others.

The verdict

- The available evidence is not sufficient to produce an overall rating for this filing. This is not a warning sign.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: NotEnoughData
  • Transparency & Controls: 50
  • Accountability: 100
  • Sustainability: 53
  • Growth: 60

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: Limited
  • Program expense ratio: Limited
  • Fundraising efficiency: Limited

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 68th percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: 3 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 50
    • Compensation committee: Pass
    • Independent consultant: Missing
    • Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
    • Written employment contract: Missing
    • Compensation survey or study: Pass
    • Board or committee approval: Pass
  • Foreign activity oversight: Scored; rating input score 0
  • Grant itemization coverage: Scored; rating input score 0
  • Major donor itemization: Limited
  • Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 77th percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 9 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 100
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Pass
    • Document-retention policy: Pass
    • CEO compensation review process: Pass
    • Other executive compensation review process: Pass
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Pass
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Pass

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 6.3%; rating input score 61; 61st percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.74; rating input score 58; 58th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.28; rating input score 58; 58th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 8.4%; rating input score 5; 5th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: Limited
  • Revenue growth: 7.5% per year; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 9% per year; rating input score 100; 65th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • What they do: 1 operating location identified
  • Where the money goes: Financial trends and filed revenue, expense, asset, and liability detail
  • Governance: 22 of 22 board members independent · 9 of 9 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment
  • Leadership: top reported pay $1.3M · 42 people listed · 3 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
  • Highest-paid contractors: 5 contractors listed · $10.7M reported
  • Consistency: 13 of 13 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 6 filed schedules · includes foreign activity and executive pay
  • Filing history: 15 filing years from 2009 to 2024
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 35 filed money-flow records
  • Grant readiness: Federal tax and exclusion status, award history, and grant-maker relationships.
  • People: Everyone the filings name, and which of them the filings identify by more than a name.
  • Staff and benefit plans: Retirement and health plans the organization files with the Department of Labor, and the people in them.

Key Signals

Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.

  • High — Transparency & Controls: Foreign activity oversight scored 0/100.
  • High — Transparency & Controls: Grant itemization coverage scored 0/100.
  • Review — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 58/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 5/100.
  • Review — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 58/100.