Since MF Global filed for bankruptcy on October 31 and revealed that customer money was missing, attention has been focused on Jon Corzine, the firm's former chief executive. Once a Wall Street "master of the universe", with a career including stints as head of Goldman Sachs, a US senator and governor of New Jersey, Mr Corzine is now one of the most reviled figures in finance.

There has also been intense scrutiny of CME Group, America's biggest futures exchange operator and the industry body responsible for regulating MF Global's commodities business. Some customers are angry at what they say was a lapse in oversight; others say a for-profit entity should not be regulating its own customers. CME responds that no watchdog can guarantee against fraud.

But the MF Global scandal is more than just a question of tarnished reputations. It has had a profound effect on the entire financial industry. The realisation that customers could lose money kept in segregated accounts separate from the firm's own money - thought by many to be as safe as a bank - has severely damaged confidence in the 163-year-old US futures market. Before the financial crisis, futures were among the fastest-growing of all exchange-traded products.

"This is unprecedented. It's the single biggest blow the industry has ever had to its business and credibility," says a former senior CME executive. "It has forced us to ask the question: is the model of the futures industry so flawed that it can never be the same again?"

Such soul-searching is rare for a business that in the past 30 years has transformed itself from an agricultural backwater. Futures markets - which enable producers such as manufacturers to fix for the longer term the prices at which they buy or sell rather than expose themselves to the risk of volatility on the daily spot markets - were once seen chiefly as a system of crop insurance for farmers. Today investors trade agreements to buy and sell in the future anything from oil to financial products.

David Fuller's view The scandal of MF Global has less to do with regulatory problems than a cavalier recklessness on the part of the firm's management. Jon Corzine, of all people should have known better. Many observers felt that he was treated deferentially by former colleagues during the Congressional committee hearings examining what went wrong at MF Global.

There should be a proper trial and if found guilty, Mr Corzine and others responsible should receive sufficient fines and jail sentences to serve as a deterrent to others who might be tempted to play fast and loose with their fiduciary responsibilities, not least clients' money.