NEW YORK (Bloomberg) — Bermuda-based MF Global Ltd., the securities firm spun off from the largest publicly traded hedge-fund manager, named former Bank of America Corp. executive Peter Forlenza as global head of equities.

Forlenza, 43, founded Outpost Investment Group LLC, a New York-based hedge fund, in March 2008 after leaving Bank of America, where he was global head of equities. He'll oversee MF Global's equities team worldwide and will be responsible for running the equity and equity-derivatives business, including cash, direct market access, equity derivative and exchange-traded funds, MF Global said in a Business Wire statement yesterday.

"Within the past year, we've added more than 60 senior-level professionals from Wall Street and other major corporations," Bernard Dan, chief executive officer of MF Global, said in the statement.

Dan, former CEO of the Chicago Board of Trade, is overhauling Hamilton, Bermuda-based MF Global after the company lost 94 percent of its market value last year as one of its brokers lost $141 million in a bad wheat trade, it missed earnings predictions and confusion grew over financing plans to pay debt. Dan took over in October last year from Kevin Davis, who was with MF Global for 17 years and was one of the founders.

MF Global is a former unit of Man Group Plc and one of the largest derivatives traders globally. Man Group built the business by acquiring assets from Refco Inc., the New York-based futures broker that went bankrupt in 2005 and sold shares to the public in July 2007. The stock has more than tripled this year.