By Alexandra Alper and Sarah N. Lynch
WASHINGTON, July 12 (Reuters) - The Commodity Futures Trading Commission has called an emergency industry meeting to explore how to better protect customer money, days after the discovery that millions of dollars of customer funds went missing at now-bankrupt futures broker PFGBest.
Scott O'Malia, a commissioner at the U.S. futures regulator, invited the agency's Technology Advisory Committee to meet on July 26 in Washington.
The group, which is made up of futures industry representatives, will discuss ways that banks can provide quick automated verification to customers that their funds are safe, after the discovery earlier this week of a roughly $200 million shortfall in customer funds at Iowa-based PFGBest.
"This fraud and the fraud perpetrated at MF Global that came to light less than year ago both involve the theft of customer funds by intermediaries," O'Malia wrote in an email to committee members on Thursday. "What we need is a technology solution that eliminates the possibility of theft and misappropriation of customer funds."
Peregrine Financial Group, PFGBest's regulated unit, filed for bankruptcy on Tuesday in Chicago after regulators accused it of misappropriating customer funds for more than two years.
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