Until last October, farmers and fund managers rarely lost sleep over the extra money that they habitually maintained in their brokerage accounts, confident that it would be there the next morning. Now, stung by the loss of customer money from the failure of MF Global Inc, many cannot sleep soundly without transferring every spare cent into their own banks overnight. It is a sea change in the way that traders manage their “excess collateral” — cash on account that is over and above the margin required to guarantee their trades. It means that floor traders and corn growers are spending more time, and in some cases money, moving cash in a process known as “sweeping.” Read more on Reuters here.
