Former MF Global Ltd. clients face a further delay in securing their funds and collateral after CME Group Inc. said it had frozen access them until after the close of business on Nov. 8. The Chicago-based exchange operator oversaw the mass transfer of client accounts from the failed brokerage to new clearing partners, a process that was due to have been completed on Nov. 4. But in a client notice late Sunday, CME said it was checking whether the correct amount of collateral was allocated to each of the customers involved in the bulk transfer of positions.
CME said in a client notice it had directed the firms that had taken over the MF Global business to delay distributing the transferred collateral and funds from liquidated positions until the review had been completed. The company didn’t expand in the notice as to whether any mistakes had been made in the original calculation. The delay is the latest hitch in the transfer of thousands of client accounts hit by MF Global’s bankruptcy filing.