Description
In February 1995, Barings, Britain's oldest merchant bank, having withstood the vicissitudes of the markets for 233 years and established itself as the most venerable of financial institutions, collapsed spectacularly with losses approaching ยฃ850 million. That a firm of such stature could be brought to its knees was extraordinary in itself, but the discovery that this had apparently been achieved by the speculations of a single rogue trader caused shockwaves which reverberated around the world.
As the star trader of Barings' most profitable subsidiary, Nick Leeson had been respected to the point of reverence. In 1994 the 28-year-old from Watford was making the company as much as $10 million a week; his colleagues dubbed him the king of the Singapore trading floor - he dubbed himself 'Superman'.
Many theories have been put forward as to why it all went wrong and how Leeson found himself in a position to wreak such havoc, but Judith Rawnsley, herself a former employee of Barings in the Far East, is uniquely placed to provide the answers. In this unprecedented look at the internal operations of Barings she charts the seven-year build-up to an accident waiting to happen, detailing the politics and conflicts that set the stage for disaster, the culture and psychology of the trading floor. Hers is the inside story, the first and most authoritative account of the Barings affair.
