CFTC Outlines Five Enforcement Priorities for 2026, Signals Shift Away From Regulation by Enforcement

On March 31, 2026, CFTC Enforcement Director David I. Miller set out the agency’s priority areas for the year ahead during remarks at NYU Law School. The announcement marks a notable shift in tone from the previous administration’s approach.

Miller named five priority areas: insider trading (including in prediction markets), market manipulation (with a focus on energy), market abuse and disruptive trading, retail fraud including Ponzi schemes, and willful violations of Anti-Money Laundering and Know-Your-Customer rules. The retail fraud and AML/KYC categories are the most directly relevant to the forex and CFD sector, where off-exchange retail offerings have historically attracted enforcement attention.

The headline policy change is Miller’s explicit statement that “the era of regulation by enforcement is over.” Under CFTC Chairman Selig, the Division says it will concentrate resources on fraud, manipulation, and market abuse rather than using enforcement as a tool to set novel regulatory policy. A revised cooperation and declination policy is also forthcoming.

Why it matters

For regulated retail forex and CFD firms operating in or accessing US clients, the shift has two practical implications. First, firms with clean AML and KYC frameworks are less likely to face speculative enforcement actions on structural or grey-area questions. Second, firms involved in retail fraud or running opaque account management schemes remain a clear target — and the CFTC has not softened on those.

The AML/KYC priority is also a signal to firms that the regulator is watching for willful — not merely technical — violations. That distinction matters for how brokers document their compliance decisions.

What to watch next

The CFTC has said a new cooperation policy advisory is coming soon. That document will clarify when voluntary disclosure leads to reduced penalties and what declination looks like in practice. Firms with potential exposure in the AML/KYC space should track that publication closely. The first enforcement actions filed under the new priority framework will also indicate where the agency draws the line between technical gaps and willful conduct.