Thursday, November 3, 2011

Did accounting help sink Corzine’s MF Global?

http://blogs.reuters.com/bethany-mclean/2011/11/01/did-accounting-help-sink-corzines-mf-global/
“Off balance sheet arrangements and risk”:  “At March 31, 2011, securities purchased under agreements to resell and securities sold under agreements to repurchase of $1,495.7 million and $14,520.3 million, respectively, at contract value, were de-recognized.” (“De-recognized” means moved off the balance sheet.) Of that $14.5 billion, 52.6% was collateralized with sovereign debt. One way to get a sense of the ramp-up of “repo to maturity” transactions is to compare the figures to those as of March 31, 2010:  The securities sold under agreements to repurchase increased by some $9 billion.
Sounds to me like the bankrupt MF Global cooked their books.  But then again, I'm just a hillbilly who fell off the turnip truck.

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