How One Man brought down England’s oldest bank
Nick Leeson’s reckless trading caused a two billion pound loss, leading to Barings’ Bank’s bankruptcy.
It is the stock exchange in Japan, and traders filled the trading floor with enthusiastic traders. Among them is a British trader who is involved in aggressive trading.
The British trader had an unlimited cash supply and no one to monitor him. The trader led to the collapse of Barings Bank, one of the oldest banks in England, a grand loss of two billion pounds in a single day.
The Reckless Trader
Nick Leeson started his career as a clerk in a local bank. One of England’s oldest banks, Barings Bank, hired him as a senior manager. Due to his diligent work, Nick Leeson climbed the corporate ladder.
He approached the bank’s higher management to open a securities division, for which he became the head of operations. Nick Leeson proved to be a good trader, and the bank started to believe him a lot. Barings Bank transferred Nick Leeson to Singapore, where he traded in Japanese Nikkei stock options. Nick Leeson aggressively…
