MF Global – Regulation Matters?

Many Alarms Rang Before MF Global Crashed ... A little before 2 a.m. on Monday, Jon S. Corzine was in MF Global's offices in Midtown Manhattan, scrambling to cut a deal to save his firm. Haggard from too little sleep, at times pacing the hallways, he at least had a handshake agreement with one suitor for the firm. Then the chief executive was interrupted to handle a brief conversation that would stop the deal talks cold: hundreds of millions of dollars in customer funds, he was told, could not be located. Three hours later, the board of MF Global, with no bidders or options left, voted to file for bankruptcy, the largest failure on Wall Street since Lehman Brothers in 2008. While the commodities and derivatives brokerage firm fell apart with ferocious speed, the collapse came after regulators raised warning flags for more than four months. They told MF Global it needed to raise more capital, and they asked about risky transactions involving European debt ... Three years after the financial crisis, Wall Street executives are still fighting regulators' demands. It also shows that even when the watchdogs sound the alarm, it is not necessarily enough to save a firm. – New York Times

More