MF Global Fiasco Continues

NYT:

Still, an exact sum of the at-risk cash remains elusive.
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the regulator leading the hunt for the money, has estimated the shortfall at $680 million. Mr. Giddens previously pegged the total at $1.2 billion.
His revised estimate, $1.6 billion, applies only to customers who traded commodities at MF Global. The figure does not include potentially hundreds of millions of dollars owed to the firm’s securities industry customers.
The trustee on Friday cautioned that the number could continue to fluctuate while customer claims are processed and missing money is recovered.
Mr. Giddens based the revised estimate in part on information gleaned from claims forms that commodity customers recently filed. The forms show that about 40 percent of commodities customers hail from five states, including Illinois and New York, where the firm had dual headquarters, the trustee said in a statement.
Nearly all of the customers have made claims for less than $100,000.
As the numbers ebb and flow, three months after MF Global filed for bankruptcy, the delay is weighing on the firm’s customers, as varied as farmers and hedge funds.
Customers who traded in the United States have received about 70 percent of their cash back. But customers who traded overseas have yet to see a penny.

This mess has undermined the concept of custodial accounts and highlighted the danger of multinational banking entities.  I don't understand how faith in the financial sector can be reestablished without massive regulatory changes.  People need to go to jail over this.