A growing part of the foreign exchange market is retail traders, which are frequently individuals. Both the size and importance of this segment of the market is growing, currently participating indirectly in the marketplace through the action of brokers or banks. Despite the fact that retail brokers are highly controlled and regulated by the government in the USA by the CFTC (Commodity Futures Trading Commission) and the NFA (National Futures Association), there has still persisted several, periodic foreign exchange scams. In order to prevent such scams from occurring, the NFA and CFTC have both begun to impose even stricter requirements, as of 2009.
These stricter requirements are mostly in relation to the amount of Net Capitalization which is required by members. This added strictness has resulted in a large reduction in unsavory brokers and bad brokerage practices.