MF Global

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MF Global Holdings Ltd

Company type	Public company
Traded as	OTC Pink: MFGLQ
Industry	Financial services
Founded	2007 (2007)
Founder	Man Group
Defunct	2011 (2011)
Fate	Filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The brokerage unit is undergoing SIPC liquidation.
Headquarters	New York City , United States
Key people	Jon Corzine, CEO (Mar 2010-November 2011)
Services	Financial broker, Online trading, Futures, Options, CFDs, Spread Betting
Operating income	100,000,000
Total assets	$42.460 billion (2010)
Total equity	$1.490 billion (2010)
Number of employees	3,271[1]
Website	www.mfglobal.com

MF Global, formerly known as Man Financial, was a major global financial derivatives broker, or commodities brokerage firm that went bankrupt in 2011. MF Global provided exchange-traded derivatives, such as futures and options as well as over-the-counter products such as contracts for difference (CFDs), foreign exchange and spread betting. MF Global Inc., its broker-dealer subsidiary, was a primary dealer in United States Treasury securities. A series of perceived liquidity problems and large fines and penalties dogged MF Global starting in 2008, and led to its bankruptcy in 2011.

In 2011, MF Global faced major pressures to its liquidity over several months. Some analysts and financial commentators indicate that MF Global probably experienced a number of trading days in 2011 during which the firm's bets on sovereign debt would have required the use of customer funds to meet capital requirements, thereby maintaining operating funds and possibly overall solvency. A large part of these pressures on MF Global were a result of the firm's involvement in a significant number of repurchase agreements. Many of these repo agreements were conducted off their balance sheet. Also, MF Global made a $6.3 billion investment on its own behalf in bonds of some of Europe's most indebted nations. Failure of those, and other repo positions, contributed to the massive liquidity crisis at the firm. MF Global experienced a meltdown of its financial condition, caused by improper transfers of over $891 million from customer accounts to a MF broker-dealer account to cover losses created by trading losses.^{[citation needed]}

On October 31, 2011, MF Global executives admitted that transfer of $700 million from customer accounts to the broker-dealer and a loan of $175 million in customer funds to MF Global's U.K. subsidiary to cover (or mask) liquidity shortfalls at the company occurred on October 28, 2011. MF could not repay these monies with its own funds. Improper co-mingling, or mixing, of company and client funds took place for days before the illicit transfer and loans, and perhaps for many other days earlier in the year. According to the New York Times, "MF Global dipped again and again into customer funds to meet the demands", perhaps beginning as early as August 2011.^[2]

MF Global declared bankruptcy on October 31, 2011, and the company was liquidated beginning in November 2011.^[3] The trustee liquidating the company said that the losses incurred by customers of MF Global stood at $1.6 billion at April 2012.^[4][5] In January 2013, a judge approved a settlement that would return 93 percent of customers' investments, with the prospect of additional payouts from the company's general estate.^[6][7] In December 2014, MF Global Holdings settled a U.S. government lawsuit, agreeing to pay $1.2 billion in restitution and a $100 million fine for customer losses tied to the company's 2011 collapse.^[8]