Segregating assets can also concentrate managers' minds on the task of getting rid of the rubbish.
By contrast, regulators in the euro zone have dithered over forcing banks to raise equity or to segregate assets in bad banks.
While there has been much talk about segregating assets, he said, assets are really held in one big pool, and it is only through accounting that they are assigned to a particular account.
The company also provides investment management services with respect to the company's general fund assets, segregated fund assets, mutual funds, and to the institutional customers.
If that's the case, there may have been a deliberate and concerted effort to override MF Global's internal controls to gain access to segregated customer assets, and if that can be proved, those responsible should be prosecuted and, if convicted, go to jail.
Making bad bets on European sovereign debt — like making bad bets on United States mortgage-backed securities — isn't a crime, but improperly transferring segregated customer assets is a potential criminal violation of the securities laws and a relatively straightforward one at that.
A CCP shall keep records and accounts that shall enable it, at any time and without delay, to identify and segregate the assets and positions of one clearing member from the assets and positions of any other clearing member and from its own assets.
This involves folks who own a bunch of assets, but try to segregate each asset so that they can contain the liability within each Series.
"So if the back office at MF Global isn't properly segregating the assets, I don't know if the customers can do anything about it".
The new version, known internally at Merrill as CMA 2.0, would allow customers who are queasy about mixing investments and savings to choose how to segregate various assets within the account.
