Ahoy,
I'm caught up in the MF mess along with many others. I, like others, was concerned about whether or not lodging an informal proof of debt would reduce my rights, especially as I have done this (and Deloitte have recommended doing so via their communications).
I spoke to ASIC first, and they've marked my case as urgent and will get back to me today hopefully. I said I was concerned our funds might end up paying Deloitte's fees, espeically if we identify ourselves as creditors.
Then I spoke to Deloitte. They have essentially said whether we fill out the form or not, our entitlements to our money will not change. However doing so gives us the right to vote at the first creditors meeting. They said that we (clients) are creditors based simply on the fact that MFGA owes us money. After thinking about it a bit it did make sense that fillling out that form can not be used to change our legal entitlements to our funds as that would be open to a massive can of worms and deceptive ploys etc.
I probed Deloitte further for timetables and information. To Deloitte's credit the person I spoke to was quite helpful and did seem to know what they were talking about (you would hope so too given the fees!) They couldn't give anything concrete (as usual) however they believed a tangible timetable for things such as reconcilliation and paying funds back to clients and so forth was not too far off. It was hard to guage what this meant exactly, but my feeling was we should have this within weeks. This was the timetable though - not the funds themselves!
I asked if it could take a year even to receive funds, and they reacted in a manner suggesting it should not take anywhere near that long - but certainly months seemed on the cards.
I also tried to probe about the status closing positions and account reconcilliation. This affects everyone indirectly as until everything is closed we are all in limbo - my understanding is they won't give anyone anything if there is one position out there unnaccounted for. Nothing concrete again, but I took from his responses that a very small percentage of positions with some international exchanges were outstanding. Hopefully this means the risk of losing positions eating into the money is lower.
If there are losing positions I'm not sure who pays though... the wait must be even more nervous for those that don't know if their positions have been closed AND they can see their positions would be losing.
I did feel much better after speaking to them that money is there and coming back at some point. Though it is part of their job to make me feel better so it has to be taken with a grain of salt.
There is a great insight into market psychology here for all traders that have money with MF. Stocks and other instruments do not like uncertainty at all, and they generally can't move on while that uncertainty remains. We MFGA clients are just the same now, with the uncertainty getting to us more than the reality, with every unanswered question playing on our minds. Figuring out the path forward without knowing if/when we are getting how much money back is difficult.
Hopefully a concrete timetable is issued soon. The list of questions Brent and Pierre-Francis are putting forward, if all answered, will be most helpful.
Well done to anyone involved that has taken action - it may be for not much in the end but I would kick myself rather hard if it was all over, I lost out and did nothing.
I'm caught up in the MF mess along with many others. I, like others, was concerned about whether or not lodging an informal proof of debt would reduce my rights, especially as I have done this (and Deloitte have recommended doing so via their communications).
I spoke to ASIC first, and they've marked my case as urgent and will get back to me today hopefully. I said I was concerned our funds might end up paying Deloitte's fees, espeically if we identify ourselves as creditors.
Then I spoke to Deloitte. They have essentially said whether we fill out the form or not, our entitlements to our money will not change. However doing so gives us the right to vote at the first creditors meeting. They said that we (clients) are creditors based simply on the fact that MFGA owes us money. After thinking about it a bit it did make sense that fillling out that form can not be used to change our legal entitlements to our funds as that would be open to a massive can of worms and deceptive ploys etc.
I probed Deloitte further for timetables and information. To Deloitte's credit the person I spoke to was quite helpful and did seem to know what they were talking about (you would hope so too given the fees!) They couldn't give anything concrete (as usual) however they believed a tangible timetable for things such as reconcilliation and paying funds back to clients and so forth was not too far off. It was hard to guage what this meant exactly, but my feeling was we should have this within weeks. This was the timetable though - not the funds themselves!
I asked if it could take a year even to receive funds, and they reacted in a manner suggesting it should not take anywhere near that long - but certainly months seemed on the cards.
I also tried to probe about the status closing positions and account reconcilliation. This affects everyone indirectly as until everything is closed we are all in limbo - my understanding is they won't give anyone anything if there is one position out there unnaccounted for. Nothing concrete again, but I took from his responses that a very small percentage of positions with some international exchanges were outstanding. Hopefully this means the risk of losing positions eating into the money is lower.
If there are losing positions I'm not sure who pays though... the wait must be even more nervous for those that don't know if their positions have been closed AND they can see their positions would be losing.
I did feel much better after speaking to them that money is there and coming back at some point. Though it is part of their job to make me feel better so it has to be taken with a grain of salt.
There is a great insight into market psychology here for all traders that have money with MF. Stocks and other instruments do not like uncertainty at all, and they generally can't move on while that uncertainty remains. We MFGA clients are just the same now, with the uncertainty getting to us more than the reality, with every unanswered question playing on our minds. Figuring out the path forward without knowing if/when we are getting how much money back is difficult.
Hopefully a concrete timetable is issued soon. The list of questions Brent and Pierre-Francis are putting forward, if all answered, will be most helpful.
Well done to anyone involved that has taken action - it may be for not much in the end but I would kick myself rather hard if it was all over, I lost out and did nothing.
