MF Global clients set for further delay as empire’s sell-off begins
NEARLY two-thirds of positions from the British unit of MF Global were still open yesterday, a week after it filed for bankruptcy protection, sparking frustration about delays in moving business to new brokers.
UK administrators KPMG said 954,000 positions were open out of the 1.6m in place when MF Global Holdings filed for bankruptcy protection on 31 October.
KPMG is in talks about selling parts of the MF Global business in the UK. It said the $633m (£395m) in missing client assets were unlikely to affect the winding down of the British arm.
KPMG said the entire foreign exchange portfolio in Europe had been unwound, consisting of 25,000 trades with a notional value of $60bn.
On Sunday regulator CME also asked brokers who took over customer accounts from MF Global not to distribute any of the money before the end of today.
Meanwhile traders on the London Metal Exchange said turnover was thinner than usual yesterday.