发布MF全球

Nobody likes to lose money — least of all when it occurs in a system long considered safe. Regulators, exchanges, futures firms, and individual brokers have all taken pride and advertised that futures customer funds are segregated from any monies or positions of the clearing member holding customer funds. As CME Clearing’s Financial Safeguards document states: “The (segregation) regulations are designed to protect customers in the event of insolvency or financial instability of the clearing member through which they conduct business. CME Group’s Audit Department routinely inspects the books and records of the clearing members to ensure among other thing, their compliance with segregation requirements.” Prior failures of Futures Commission Merchant firms posed little to no disruption to the firm’s futures customers — the entire book of accounts, positions, and funds were typically transferred intact to another firm or firms that seamlessly integrated that business. “Business as usual” had been the mantra in the past; customers were literally segregated from the financial losses of the firm that had held their account(s).

然后是10月31日。MFGlobal的崩溃以及发现超过10亿美元的客户隔离资金的发现，在MF Global Altrupt申请提交的最后几天没有责备，这使期货行业成为其核心。MF Global的灭亡不仅仅是一家公司的失败。这些法规和法律中，这种裸露的系统弱点是管理保护客户资金的allfutures and options accounts atallfirms。客户和经纪人都发现，“法律信”和感知到的客户保护措施截然不同。一些帐户在11月4日之前发现其职位已转移到其他公司，而其他帐户仍留在MF Global中，而MF Global不再能够处理交易。但是，包括国库账单在内的许多客户隔离资金仍然丢失或看似处于“困境”。

MF Global became mired in both an S.I.P.A. liquidation and the 8^th美国最大的破产（比克莱斯勒大）。这些行动受单独的法律和法规管辖，并包括从伦敦到洛杉矶的38,000名期货客户（和400个证券帐户）。SIPA证券和投资者保护法清算由受托人詹姆斯·吉登斯（James Giddens）监督，第11章重组由受托人路易斯·弗里夫（Louis Freeh）监督的MF全球控股公司。最终结果是一场合法的战争，越过大陆和管辖区有时与顾客有时陷入困境。直到12月中旬，经过三次现金转移，客户才有相当完整的资金移动记录。大约有72％的客户帐户余额已退还，其余部分显示为未备案的资产和对MF Global的索赔。即使到1月中旬，剩余的美元尚未正式找到，更不用说恢复了。

Bankruptcies aren’t resolved quickly, and there’s reason to hope more customer dollars will be recovered, or that other resources may assist in covering customer losses. But the core issue remains: How could this happen and what’s being done to ensure it doesn’t happen again?

The weakness in the system is that the protections are sufficient, but only if an FCM does not remove customer segregated funds for any purpose other than those allowed for under law. For instance, FCMs may hold and invest Seg Funds in certain instruments authorized under CFTC regulations, with the interest earnings accruing to the FCM. If an FCM fails but all Seg Funds are held as required, regulators can quickly ‘sell’ and move the accounts and funds to other firm(s). But it came to light there is no insurance coverage, nor other protections against outright shortfalls in customer Seg Fund balances.

客户很生气，国会武装起来，贷方正在审查其在提供资金资金资金账户的潜在曝光率。听证会很重要，要掌握发生的事情，并负责那些可能做错的人。但是同样紧急的是改变系统以保护客户资金。客户抵押品的安全 - 包括您的营运资金和保证金yourlenders send to Chicago or KC or Minneapolis — has been what has allowed agriculture to offer the wide array of marketing alternatives to farmers, and to rapidly and easily trade cash grain among commercial firms with pricing via exchange of futures. If lenders are reluctant or won’t completely fund margin requirements, borrowers will have to reassess how far forward they’ll buy grain. Everyone recalls the margin demands the industry faced in 2008 and again in 2011 as prices skyrocketed!

快速变化是必不可少的，CFTC专员Bart Chilton在他1月11日的委员会委员会对掉期法规的委员会声明的介绍中总结了这一点：“何时出错了…for so many years, we had the confidence that customer funds were so very well protected by the federal commodities segregated account statutes and regulations. But MF Global was a stone-cold, Sumatra-bold, no-holds barred wake-up call — this was a hit to the very heart of who we are as regulators and who we are as an industry.”

Now the hard work is underway

CFTC刚刚按照Dodd-Frank立法的要求，最终确定了针对互换客户的客户抵押保护法规。在未来几年中，数万亿美元的掉期业务将转向交流的清算，而掉期客户同样担心their抵押品。商品期货交易委员会采取了LSOC规定:“北方联盟党lly Segregated, Operationally Commingled”, where all customer funds are commingled but accounted for individually, the same as for futures and options. But there are some differences in how swaps funds would be handled in a bankruptcy situation. The key to the protections is what might constitute “Legally Segregated.” In private over the counter swaps, for example, some big participants demand their dollars be held in a 3^rdparty bank of their choice for extra security. That is not an option under LSOC.

Brave New World

In a Post-MF Global world for both futures and swaps, “Legally Segregated” might involve the creation of an entirely new model, such as a Central Depository, that would receive and hold all funds for all customers — entirely separate from the futures firms. Customers of Abracadabra Futures, in that case, would wire funds to the C.D. — not to Abracadabra’s bank. Or a Central Depository might actually be an existing bank, but one that handles no ‘house accounts’ foranyfutures firm, does no proprietary trading, and in no way would put customer Segregated Funds at risk. Any earnings on such Seg Funds would likely be managed by the CD and divided proportionally among all of the futures firms whose clients funds are deposited.

概述了另一个以前未知的期货和掉期客户面临的风险，概述了涵盖客户违约事件的混淆，这反过来又触发了CME的清算成员的默认成员的默认值：有担保帐户，CME清算有权应用所有绩效保证金存款；…。未造成违约的客户存入的绩效债券存款和职位可能面临风险。”用普通的英语，如果MF Global无法在CME遇到保证金电话，因为MF Global客户未能履行其义务，CME可能会返回其他客户。

The Devil’s always in the details, and any dramatic overhaul will require regulatory change at the CFTC level, and perhaps legislative change. And for every risk that’s eliminated another may be found that has to be tackled. Insuring customer funds sounds like an easy solution, for example; skeptics counter that raises ‘moral hazards.’ But a lot of people are already hard at work behind the scenes, swapping ideas and finding the weaknesses as well as the strengths, to quickly craft a better system so agriculture can get back to the business of managing risk and feeding the world.

You can help by writing or calling your Representatives and Senators, and writing or emailing the CFTC, telling them that your willingness and ability to use futures and options, and your lenders’ willing to finance hedging, depend on your money being safe — regardless of what firm you deal with.

—Jackie Roembke