Exchanges trying to get help for Sentinel: CFTC

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. futures exchanges are trying to get other futures companies to step in and ease Sentinel Management Group Inc's concerns about client redemptions, a Commodity Futures Trading Commission official said on Tuesday.

"They're working jointly to see if they can get somebody to help out," the CFTC official told Reuters, referring to the exchanges. "They know they have to act."

Sentinel, a futures commission merchant with the CFTC, serves as an investment adviser and as an intermediary between investors and the exchanges. It oversees about $1.6 billion in assets.

Sentinel said in an August 13 letter to clients it was "concerned that we cannot meet any significant redemption requests without selling securities at deep discounts to their fair value and therefore causing unnecessary losses to our clients."

The Chicago Board of Trade, Chicago Mercantile Exchange, New York Mercantile Exchange and New York Board of Trade, along with the National Futures Association, have told the CFTC they will seek out other companies to take over some of Sentinel's accounts, said the official, who asked not to be named.

Some of the companies might be affiliates of larger financial institutions that could provide an infusion of cash or credit, the official said.

This should ease the concern of clients who want to take their money out of Sentinel and prevent the problem from spreading market wide, the official said.

"They're not doing this purely for charity," the official said. "The (companies) who have money with Sentinel are members of the various exchanges. So the exchanges have an interest to make sure there is no spillover which will effect them."

However, the CFTC official said the exchanges have told the CFTC "they have no indication that this is going to spread."

"But you're always going to be on the lookout," the official said.

(Reporting by Tom Doggett)