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Futures and options brokerage MF Global has lost a number of fuel oil brokers from its London fuel oil swaps desk, according to market sources.

It is understood that eight brokers from the company's nine-man fuel oil desk resigned from their posts earlier this month with the remaining member also expected to leave soon.

According to media reports, the brokers left the company after MF Global changed its bonus scheme.

An MF Global spokeswoman declined to comment on whether the brokers had resigned but said that the London fuel oil desk had not been closed.

Less than a month ago, the company closed its Asia fuel oil broking desk in Singapore following the departure of all six of its brokers.

The office closure came just a few months after the appointment of Jon S Corzin, former Chairman of Goldman Sachs and governor of New Jersey, as new Chairman and Chief Executive of MF Global in March 2010.

Corzin said in May that the group's fiscal performance for 2010 was “completely unacceptable” after the company posted a quarterly loss of $96.5 million.

MF Global later announced that it would be cutting its workforce of around 3200 by 10-15 percent, stop new hiring, reduce compensation, and postpone or eliminate initiatives that were not fundamental to the future direction of the business.

Meanwhile, another company to have recently closed its fuel oil broking operation in Singapore is Nittan Capital, a subsidiary of Japanese money broker Central Tanshi.

However, despite the fact that the Singapore broking sector is currently being described as saturated with consolidation expected in the medium term, US firm McQuilling Brokerage Partners Inc. is expected to start a six-man fuel oil broking desk next month after hiring five of the senior brokers that recently left MF Global Singapore.