FM Global is not the same as MF Global

December 8, 2011, 9:54 PM UTC


Rep. Lucas

An insurance company gets mistakenly dragged into the MF Global hearings.

The House Committee on Agriculture today is holding a hearing to understand what happened at MF Global (MFGLQ), the Jon Corzine-led brokerage that recently became the eighth-largest bankruptcy in U.S. history. A worthwhile endeavor, but at least one company must be displeased by the proceedings so far.

That would be FM Global, a Rhode Island-based insurance company that was repeatedly invoked by Rep. Frank Lucas (R-OK), the House Committee’s chairman. A simple transposition, but one that Lucas did over and over again. Is it really possible that he doesn’t know the name of the firm that he is investigating?

And it’s not as if FM Global is a small regional company. It was founded 175 years ago, operates in 140 companies and reported a year-end 2010 surplus of $7.3 billion.

FM Global spokesman Jamie Pachomski wasn’t watching the proceedings, but soon began seeing his firm’s name pop up on Twitter, and began asking those who used it to correct the record.

“Not cool,” he tweeted. “@FMGlobal is a large, US-based #insurer with NO ties to @MFGlobal.”


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