MF Global filed for bankruptcy protection for the United States parent company on Monday, the first American financial casualty of the European debt crisis.
In the Chapter 11 filing in Federal Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan, the firm listed assets of between $100 million and $500 million and liabilities of between $10 million to $50 million. JPMorgan is identified as the biggest creditor, with a claim of $1.2 billion as the trustee on behalf of bondholders. Deutsche Bank is the second biggest, with a $325 million claim on behalf of bondholders.
As part of the bankruptcy, Interactive Brokers had been expected to commit to buy the assets of MF Global. That would be somewhat similar to what Lehman Brothers did in 2008, when its parent filed for bankruptcy but Barclays bought some of the assets.
While talks are continuing, the prospects of a deal are growing dimmer, according to people briefed on the negotiations.
Earlier on Monday, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and a number of exchanges said that they had suspended MF Global from conducting new business with them.
The bankruptcy filing is a humbling blow for the firm’s chief executive, Jon S. Corzine, who took the reins of the firm in early 2010 after a decade as a U.S. Senator and governor in New Jersey.
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3 Responses
He should have stuck to running New Jersey (oh, that sort of worked out the same way, didn’t it)
What are politicians good for = bankruptcies including states, cities and now the usa
Corzine spent most of his career as a businessman, not as a politician.