About 5,300 of MF Global Holdings Ltd. (MFGLQ) customer accounts and more than $410 million in trading collateral were transferred to other trade-clearing firms Thursday, according to exchange operator CME Group Inc. (CME).

The mass shift of MF Global clients to rival clearinghouse member firms continues Friday at CME and other U.S. derivatives markets, according to a statement from CME.

The effort seeks to free up customers who had trading positions frozen and margin money trapped by MF Global's collapse on Monday. MF Global's bankruptcy filing also revealed a shortfall in client funds held on deposit, estimated at about $633 million. The discrepancy in client assets, which by law are to remain separate from a clearing firm's own funds, has held up the process of transferring MF Global clients elsewhere.

For this reason, only about 60% of the collateral posted by floor traders and hedge funds and managed by MF Global is being dispersed as part of the transfer, according to people familiar with the matter.

"CME Clearing continues to hold MF Global proprietary and customer collateral that will be distributed upon instructions from the Trustee and the bankruptcy court," CME officials said in a statement Friday.

Other clearing facilities serving markets run by IntercontinentalExchange Inc. (ICE), NYSE Euronext (NYX), CBOE Holdings Inc. (CBOE) and the Minneapolis Grain Exchange are pursuing similar transfer efforts, according to CME, as well as the Options Clearing Corp., which handles trading on all U.S. stock-options exchanges.

-By Jacob Bunge, Dow Jones Newswires; 312-750-4117; jacob.bunge@dowjones.com

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