Barings Bank (1762 to 1995) was the oldest
merchant bankIn banking, a merchant bank is a financial institution primarily engaged in offering financial services and advice to corporations and to wealthy individuals. The term can also be used to describe the private equity activities of banking...
in
London[]London is the capital of England and the United Kingdom. It has been a major settlement for two millennia, and the history of London goes back to its founding by the Romans, when it was named Londinium. London's core, the ancient City of London, the 'square mile', retains its medieval boundaries...
until its collapse in 1995 after one of the bank's employees,
Nick LeesonNicholas "Nick" Leeson is a former derivatives broker with no formal training as a dealer whose unsupervised and unauthorized speculative trading on Singapore's Singapore International Monetary Exchange caused the spectacular collapse of Barings Bank, the United Kingdom's oldest investment bank...
, lost £827 million ($1.3 billion) speculating - primarily - on
futures contractFutures contract, in finance, refers to a standardized contract to buy or sell a specified commodity of standardized quality at a certain date in the future, at a market determined price . The contracts are traded on a futures exchange. Futures contracts are not "direct" securities like stocks,...
s.
Barings Bank was founded in 1762 as the 'John and Francis Baring Company' by Sir
Francis BaringSir Francis Baring, 1st Baronet was an English merchant banker. He was born at Larkbear near Exeter, son of John Baring and his wife, Elizabeth Baring , daughter of a prosperous Exeter grocer. Despite being partially deaf from an early age, in 1762 Francis Baring established the London merchant...
, the son of John Baring, originally from
BremenThe City Municipality of Bremen is a Hanseatic city in northwestern Germany. A port city along the river Weser, about south from its mouth on the North Sea, Bremen is part of the Bremen-Oldenburg metropolitan area...
,
GermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium,...
. They were initially based in
CheapsideCheapside is a street in Cheap ward of the City of London that links Newgate Street with the junction of Queen Victoria Street, Cornhill, Threadneedle Street, Princes Street, Lombard Street and King William Street...
. The
Baring-Surname:*Alexander Baring, 1st Baron Ashburton , British banker*Alexander Baring, 4th Baron Ashburton , British landowner and politician*Charles Baring , Bishop of Durham...
family lives in both Germany and England.
In 1806, his son
Alexander BaringAlexander Baring, 1st Baron Ashburton PC was a British politician and financier.-Background:Ashburton was the second son of Sir Francis Baring, 1st Baronet, and of Harriet, daughter of William Herring....
joined the firm and they renamed it
Baring Brothers & Co., merging it with the London offices of
Hope & Co.Hope & Co. is the name of a famous Dutch bank that spanned two and a half centuries. Though the founders were Scotsmen, the bank was located in Amsterdam, and at the close of the 18th century it had offices in London as well.-Early days:...
, where Alexander worked with
Henry HopeHenry Hope was an Amsterdam merchant banker born in Boston, New England.-Early years:His father Henry was a Rotterdam merchant of Scottish lineage who had left for the "new world" after experiencing financial difficulties in the bubble of 1720 in Rotterdam. Henry Hope the elder settled near Boston...
.
Barings Bank (1762 to 1995) was the oldest
merchant bankIn banking, a merchant bank is a financial institution primarily engaged in offering financial services and advice to corporations and to wealthy individuals. The term can also be used to describe the private equity activities of banking...
in
London[]London is the capital of England and the United Kingdom. It has been a major settlement for two millennia, and the history of London goes back to its founding by the Romans, when it was named Londinium. London's core, the ancient City of London, the 'square mile', retains its medieval boundaries...
until its collapse in 1995 after one of the bank's employees,
Nick LeesonNicholas "Nick" Leeson is a former derivatives broker with no formal training as a dealer whose unsupervised and unauthorized speculative trading on Singapore's Singapore International Monetary Exchange caused the spectacular collapse of Barings Bank, the United Kingdom's oldest investment bank...
, lost £827 million ($1.3 billion) speculating - primarily - on
futures contractFutures contract, in finance, refers to a standardized contract to buy or sell a specified commodity of standardized quality at a certain date in the future, at a market determined price . The contracts are traded on a futures exchange. Futures contracts are not "direct" securities like stocks,...
s.
History
Barings Bank was founded in 1762 as the 'John and Francis Baring Company' by Sir
Francis BaringSir Francis Baring, 1st Baronet was an English merchant banker. He was born at Larkbear near Exeter, son of John Baring and his wife, Elizabeth Baring , daughter of a prosperous Exeter grocer. Despite being partially deaf from an early age, in 1762 Francis Baring established the London merchant...
, the son of John Baring, originally from
BremenThe City Municipality of Bremen is a Hanseatic city in northwestern Germany. A port city along the river Weser, about south from its mouth on the North Sea, Bremen is part of the Bremen-Oldenburg metropolitan area...
,
GermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium,...
. They were initially based in
CheapsideCheapside is a street in Cheap ward of the City of London that links Newgate Street with the junction of Queen Victoria Street, Cornhill, Threadneedle Street, Princes Street, Lombard Street and King William Street...
. The
Baring-Surname:*Alexander Baring, 1st Baron Ashburton , British banker*Alexander Baring, 4th Baron Ashburton , British landowner and politician*Charles Baring , Bishop of Durham...
family lives in both Germany and England.
In 1806, his son
Alexander BaringAlexander Baring, 1st Baron Ashburton PC was a British politician and financier.-Background:Ashburton was the second son of Sir Francis Baring, 1st Baronet, and of Harriet, daughter of William Herring....
joined the firm and they renamed it
Baring Brothers & Co., merging it with the London offices of
Hope & Co.Hope & Co. is the name of a famous Dutch bank that spanned two and a half centuries. Though the founders were Scotsmen, the bank was located in Amsterdam, and at the close of the 18th century it had offices in London as well.-Early days:...
, where Alexander worked with
Henry HopeHenry Hope was an Amsterdam merchant banker born in Boston, New England.-Early years:His father Henry was a Rotterdam merchant of Scottish lineage who had left for the "new world" after experiencing financial difficulties in the bubble of 1720 in Rotterdam. Henry Hope the elder settled near Boston...
. Around this time they relocated to
BishopsgateBishopsgate is a road and ward in the east part of the City of London, extending north from Gracechurch Street to Norton Folgate. It is named after one of the original seven gates in London Wall. The site of this gate is marked by a stone Bishop's Mitre, fixed high on a building, at the junction of...
, where their headquarters remained for decades, undergoing several refurbishments.
Barings had a long and storied history. In 1802, it helped finance the
Louisiana PurchaseThe Louisiana Purchase was the acquisition by the United States of America of of the French territory Louisiana in 1803. The U.S...
, despite the fact that
BritainThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was the formal name and the state form of the United Kingdom from 1 January 1801 until 12 April 1927...
was at war with
FranceFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
, and the sale had the effect of financing Napoleon's war effort. Technically, the United States did not purchase Louisiana from Napoleon, but from the Baring brothers and
Hope & Co.Hope & Co. is the name of a famous Dutch bank that spanned two and a half centuries. Though the founders were Scotsmen, the bank was located in Amsterdam, and at the close of the 18th century it had offices in London as well.-Early days:...
. Payment was made in US bonds, which Napoleon sold to Barings at a discount of 87 1/2 per $100. As a result, Napoleon received only $8,831,250 in cash.
Alexander BaringAlexander Baring, 1st Baron Ashburton PC was a British politician and financier.-Background:Ashburton was the second son of Sir Francis Baring, 1st Baronet, and of Harriet, daughter of William Herring....
, working for Hope & Co., conferred with the French Director of the Public Treasury
François Barbé-MarboisFrançois Barbé-Marbois, marquis de Barbé-Marbois was a French politician.-Early career:Born in Metz, where his father was director of the local mint, Barbé-Marbois tutored the children of the Marquis de Castries. In 1779 he was made secretary of the French legation to the United States...
in
ParisParis is the capital of France and the country's most populous city. It is situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
and then went to the United States to pick up the bonds before taking them to France.
A fall off in business and a lack of good leadership in 1820s caused Barings to cede its dominance in the City of London to the relatively new firm of
N M Rothschild & SonsN M Rothschild & Sons is the investment bank company of the Rothschild family. It was founded in the City of London in 1811 and is now a global firm with over 40 offices around the world...
. Barings remained a powerful firm, however, and in the 1830s and 1840s its position in financing trade led to the bank becoming heavily involved in marketing American securities. With a marked decline in merchanting in 1850s and 1860s, a commercial credit business provided the firm with its 'bread and butter' income. By the 1870s Barings was increasingly specialising in trading international securities, especially from the United States, Canada, and Argentina.
During the 1880s, daring efforts in
underwritingUnderwriting refers to the process that a large financial service provider uses to assess the eligibility of a customer to receive their products . The name derives from the Lloyd's of London insurance market...
(the bank often purchased stock outright to sell later at a premium) got the firm into serious trouble through overexposure to Argentine and Uruguayan debt, and the bank had to be rescued by a consortium organized by the governor of the
Bank of EnglandThe Bank of England is, despite its name, the central bank of the whole of the United Kingdom and is the model on which most modern, large central banks have been based. It was established in 1694 to act as the English Government's banker, and to this day it still acts as the banker for the UK...
,
William LidderdaleWilliam Lidderdale was a British merchant, and governor of the Bank of England between 1889 and 1892.Lidderdale was born to British parents at the British Chaplaincy in Saint Petersburg, Russia, and was educated at Birkenhead in Cheshire.After working for the Russian merchants Heath and Co, he...
, in the
Panic of 1890The Panic of 1890 was an acute depression that was less serious than other panics of the era precipitated by the near insolvency of the Baring Brothers Bank in London due mainly to poor investments in Argentina. The Bank of England bailed out the Baring Brothers which prevented a larger depression...
. Although recovery from the incident was swift, the bank lost its dominant position and a limited company - Baring Brothers & Co., Limited - was formed to which the business of the old partnership was transferred. The liquidity problems of the old house were settled by a loan from the Bank of England.
Barings did not return to issuing on a substantial scale until 1900, concentrating on securities in the United States and Argentina. Its new, restrained manner made it a more appropriate representative of the British establishment, and the company established ties with King
George VGeorge V was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 1910 through World War I until his death in 1936...
, beginning a close relationship with the
British monarchyThe Monarchy of the United Kingdom is the constitutional monarchy of the United Kingdom and its overseas territories. The present monarch, Elizabeth II, has reigned since 6 February 1952. She and her immediate family undertake various official, ceremonial and representational duties...
that would endure until Barings' collapse. (
Diana, Princess of WalesDiana, Princess of Wales, was the first wife of Charles, Prince of Wales. Their sons, Princes William and Harry, are second and third in line to the thrones of the United Kingdom and fifteen other Commonwealth Realms.A public figure from the announcement of her engagement to Prince Charles, Diana...
, was the great granddaughter of one of the Barings family.) The descendants of the original five male branches of the Baring family were all elevated to the
peerageThe Peerage is a system of titles in the United Kingdom, which represents the upper ranks of British nobility and is part of the British honours system. The term is used both collectively to refer to the entire body of titles, and individually to refer to a specific title...
, with the titles
Baron RevelstokeBaron Revelstoke, of Membland in the County of Devon, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1885 for the businessman Edward Baring, head of the family firm of Barings Bank...
, Earl of Northbrook,
Baron AshburtonBaron Ashburton, of Ashburton in the County of Devon, is a title that has been created twice, once in the Peerage of Great Britain and once in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. The first creation came in the Peerage of Great Britain 1782 in favour of the barrister and Whig politician, Sir John...
,
Baron Howick of GlendaleBaron Howick of Glendale, of Howick in the County of Northumberland, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1960 for Sir Evelyn Baring, the former Governor of Kenya. A member of the famous Baring family, he was the third and youngest son of Evelyn Baring, 1st Earl of...
and
Earl of CromerEarl of Cromer is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1901 for Evelyn Baring, 1st Viscount Cromer, the long-time British Consul-General in Egypt...
. The company's restraint during this period would cost it its pre-eminence in the world of finance, but would later pay dividends when its refusal to take a chance on financing
GermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium,...
's recovery from
World War IWorld War I , also known as the First World War, the Great War, and the War to End All Wars, was a global military conflict which involved most of the world's great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances: the Triple Entente and the Triple Alliance...
saved it the painful losses experienced by other British banks at the onset of the
Great DepressionThe Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
.
During the Second World War, the British government used Barings to liquidate assets in the United States and elsewhere to help finance the war effort. After the war, Barings was overtaken in size and influence by other banking houses, but remained an important player in the market, until 1995.
1995 collapse
Despite surviving the Napoleonic Wars and both World Wars, Barings was brought down in 1995 due to unauthorized trading by its head derivatives trader in
SingaporeSingapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island city-state located at the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, lying north of the equator, south of the Malaysian state of Johor and north of Indonesia's Riau Islands. At , Singapore is a microstate and the smallest nation in Southeast...
,
Nick LeesonNicholas "Nick" Leeson is a former derivatives broker with no formal training as a dealer whose unsupervised and unauthorized speculative trading on Singapore's Singapore International Monetary Exchange caused the spectacular collapse of Barings Bank, the United Kingdom's oldest investment bank...
.
At the time of the massive trading loss, Leeson was supposed to be
arbitragingIn economics and finance, arbitrage is the practice of taking advantage of a price differential between two or more markets: striking a combination of matching deals that capitalize upon the imbalance, the profit being the difference between the market prices...
, seeking to profit from differences in the prices of
Nikkei 225is a stock market index for the Tokyo Stock Exchange . It has been calculated daily by the Nihon Keizai Shimbun newspaper since 1950. It is a price-weighted average , and the components are reviewed once a year. Currently, the Nikkei is the most widely quoted average of Japanese equities, similar...
futures contracts listed on the
Osaka Securities Exchangeis the second largest securities exchange in Japan, in terms of amount of business handled. As of 31 December 2007, the Osaka Securities Exchange had 477 listed companies with a combined market capitalization of $212 billion. The Nikkei 225 Futures, introduced at the Osaka Securities Exchange in...
in Japan and the
Singapore International Monetary ExchangeThe Singapore International Monetary Exchange was a futures exchange in Singapore.It was founded in 1984. On 1 December 1999, SIMEX merged with the Stock Exchange of Singapore to form the Singapore Exchange ....
. Such arbitrage involves buying futures contracts on one market and simultaneously selling them on another at higher price. Since everyone tries to take advantage of a price difference on a publicly traded futures contract, the margins on arbitrage trading are small or even wafer thin. Consequently, the volumes traded by arbitrageurs must be very large to gain any meaningful profit. However, in arbitrage, one is buying something at one market while selling the same good at another market at the same time. Consequently, almost all risks are hedged and the strategy is not very risky. Certainly it would not have bankrupted the bank. For example, one could buy a futures contract on Nikkei worth $100 million on one day but at the same time sell the same product in Singapore for say $100,001,000. Though a person would have bought and sold nearly 200 million, their profit is only $1,000, that is 1,000 dollars for a 100 million dollar investment. However, instead of hedging his positions, Leeson gambled on the future direction of the Japanese markets. If one uses the above example, one could buy $100 million worth of Nikkei futures contracts then hope that the contract price goes up in future. In this instance, even a percentage change of the price would create 1 million dollar worth of profit or loss.
According to Eddie George, the Governor of the
Bank of EnglandThe Bank of England is, despite its name, the central bank of the whole of the United Kingdom and is the model on which most modern, large central banks have been based. It was established in 1694 to act as the English Government's banker, and to this day it still acts as the banker for the UK...
, Leeson began doing this at the end of January 1995. Due to a series of internal and external events, his unhedged losses escalated rapidly.
Internal auditing
Under Barings Futures Singapore's management structure through 1995, Leeson doubled as both the floor manager for Barings' trading on the
Singapore International Monetary ExchangeThe Singapore International Monetary Exchange was a futures exchange in Singapore.It was founded in 1984. On 1 December 1999, SIMEX merged with the Stock Exchange of Singapore to form the Singapore Exchange ....
and head of settlement operations. In the latter role, he was charged with ensuring accurate accounting for the unit. The positions would normally have been held by two different employees. As trading floor manager, Leeson reported to the head of settlement operations, an office inside Barings Bank which he himself held, which short-circuited normal accounting and internal control/audit safeguards. In effect, Leeson was able to operate with no supervision from London. After the collapse, several observers, including Leeson himself, placed much of the blame on the bank's own deficient internal
auditThe general definition of an audit is an evaluation of a person, organization, system, process, enterprise, project or product. Audits are performed to ascertain the validity and reliability of information; also to provide an assessment of a system's internal control...
ing and
risk managementRisk management is the identification, assessment, and prioritization of risks followed by coordinated and economical application of resources to minimize, monitor, and control the probability and/or impact of unfortunate events...
practices.
Some people did raise eyebrows about Leeson's activities but were ignored.
Corruption
Because of the absence of oversight, Leeson was able to make seemingly small gambles in the futures
arbitrageIn economics and finance, arbitrage is the practice of taking advantage of a price differential between two or more markets: striking a combination of matching deals that capitalize upon the imbalance, the profit being the difference between the market prices...
market at Barings Futures Singapore and cover for his shortfalls by reporting losses as gains to Barings in London. Specifically, Leeson altered the branch's error account, subsequently known by its account number 88888 as the "five-eights account", to prevent the London office from receiving the standard daily reports on trading, price, and status. Leeson claims the losses started when one of his colleagues bought contracts when he should have sold them, costing Barings £20,000.
By December 1994, Leeson had cost Barings £200 million. He reported to British tax authorities a £102 million profit. If the company had uncovered his true financial dealings then, collapse might have been avoided as Barings still had £350 million of capital.
Kobe earthquake
Using the hidden five-eights account, Leeson began to aggressively trade in futures and options on the Singapore International Monetary Exchange. His decisions routinely resulted in losses of substantial sums, but he used money entrusted to the bank by subsidiaries for use in their own accounts. He falsified trading records in the bank's computer systems, and used money intended for margin payments on other trading. As a result, he appeared to be making substantial profits. However, his luck ran out when the Kobe earthquake sent the Asian financial markets into a tailspin. Leeson bet on a rapid recovery by the Nikkei, which failed to materialize.
Discovery
On 23 February 1995, Leeson left Singapore to fly to
Kuala LumpurKuala Lumpur , is the capital and largest city of Malaysia. The city proper, making up an area of , has an estimated population of 1.6 million in 2006. Greater Kuala Lumpur, also known as the Klang Valley, is an urban agglomeration of 7.2 million...
. Barings Bank auditors finally discovered the fraud around the same time that Barings' chairman, Peter Baring, received a confession note from Leeson. Leeson's activities had generated losses totalling
£The pound sterling , often simply called the pound, is the currency of the United Kingdom, its Crown dependencies and the British Overseas Territories of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands and British Antarctic Territory...
827 million (US$1.3 billion), twice the bank's available trading capital. The collapse cost another £100 million. The Bank of England attempted a weekend bailout, but it was unsuccessful. Employees around the world did not receive their bonuses. Barings was declared insolvent on 26 February 1995 and appointed administrators began managing the finances of Barings Group and its subsidiaries. The same day, the Board of Banking Supervision of the Bank of England launched an investigation led by Britain's
Chancellor of the ExchequerThe Chancellor of the Exchequer is the title held by the British Cabinet minister who is responsible for all economic and financial matters. Often simply called The Chancellor, the office-holder controls HM Treasury and plays a role akin to the posts of Minister of Finance or Secretary of the...
and their report was released on 18 July 1995. Lord Bruce of Donington, in the
House of LordsThe House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom and is also commonly referred to as "the Lords". Parliament comprises the Sovereign, the House of Commons , and the Lords...
' debate on the report, said:
- Even the provisional conclusions of the report are interesting. I should like to give them to the House so that we may be reminded what the supervisory body itself decided at the end of such investigation as it was able to make. It stated on page 250:
-
- "Barings' collapse was due to the unauthorised and ultimately catastrophic activities of, it appears, one individual (Leeson) that went undetected as a consequence of a failure of management and other internal controls of the most basic kind".
- The words I venture to emphasise to your Lordships are these:
-
- "as a consequence of a failure of management and other internal controls of the most basic kind".
- Noble Lords who have read through paragraph 14.2 of the report will be aware that it specifies these deficiencies. The report states:
-
- "Management teams have a duty to understand fully the businesses they manage".
- Really! They really have to understand the businesses! I would have thought that it was an elementary assumption to make that the controllers should understand the nature of the businesses they are trying to control.
- The next requirement is this:
-
- "Responsibility for each business activity has to be clearly established and communicated".
- Hooray for that! I wonder how businesses in this country manage in their generality to continue without that qualification.
- The third requirement is:
-
- "Clear segregation of duties is fundamental to any effective control system".
- Tut, tut! We are now treating the real elementum of the whole art and science of management, and it needs to be repeated here.
- The report continues:
-
- "Relevant internal controls, including independent risk management, have to be established for all business activities".
- Hooray for that! These are matters of plain, ordinary common sense. One does not need to be an accountant or a management consultant to be aware of that.
- Finally:
-
- "Top management and the Audit Committee have to ensure that significant weaknesses, identified to them by internal audit or otherwise, are resolved quickly".
- Well, well, well! These are all respects which this control body finds were absent from Barings. Do noble Lords really know what is being said? It is being said that Barings ought not to have been authorised bankers from the beginning, because any business — I do not care whether it is a whelk stall (one must not insult whelk stall owners in the context of this catastrophe) or what — knows that these are the basic conditions for the continuance of the business. It seems to me that the Bank of England ought never to have authorised this concern without verifying that all these conditions were in place.
Aftermath
INGING Group N.V. is a financial institution of Dutch origin offering banking, insurance and asset management services. ING is an abbreviation of ' ....
, a Dutch bank, purchased Barings Bank in 1995 for the nominal sum of £1 and assumed all of Barings' liabilities, forming the subsidiary ING Barings. In 2001, ING sold the U.S.-based operations to
ABN AmroABN AMRO is a Dutch bank, currently owned by RFS Holdings B.V., a consortium of Royal Bank of Scotland Group, the Government of the Netherlands, and Banco Santander...
for $275 million, and folded the rest of ING Barings into its European banking division. This left only the asset management division, Baring Asset Management. In March 2005, BAM was then split and sold by ING to MassMutual (acquiring BAM’s investment management activities and the rights to use the Baring Asset Management name) and
Northern TrustNorthern Trust Corporation is an international financial services company headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It provides investment management, asset and fund administration, fiduciary and banking services through a network of 85 offices in 18 U.S. states and 12 international offices in North...
(acquiring BAM’s Financial Services Group). Barings Bank therefore no longer has a separate corporate existence, although the
Barings name still lives on as the MassMutual subsidiary,
Baring Asset Management.
Leeson was sentenced to six and a half years in prison in Singapore, but was released early in 1999 after being diagnosed with colon cancer. Despite grim forecasts at the time, he did not succumb to the disease.
See also
- Re Barings plc (No.5)
Re Barings plc [1999] 1 BCLC 433 is a leading UK company law case, concerning directors' duties of care and skill.Some reporters and commentators call this case "No 5" while others refer to it as "No 6" in the saga of litigation concerning Barings Bank.-Facts:Nick Leeson was a crooked commodities...
[1999] 1 BCLC 433
- Leonard Ingrams
Leonard Victor Ingrams was a merchant banker and opera festival founder/impresario.Leonard Ingrams was the youngest of four sons. His parents were Leonard St Clair Ingrams and Victoria . His mother was musical and he started to learn the violin at the age of six. Later he played in the National...
, former Managing DirectorManaging director is the term used for the chief executive of many limited companies from English speaking countries...
and founder of Garsington OperaGarsington Opera is an open air opera festival held each summer in the gardens of Garsington Manor, in the village of Garsington, near Oxford, England.- Opera at Garsington :...
.
- Rogue Trader
Rogue Trader is a 1999 drama film directed by James Dearden about Nick Leeson and the 1995 collapse of Barings Bank. Based on Leeson's book of the same name it stars Ewan McGregor and Anna Friel.-Plot:...
1999 film starring Ewan McGregor.
- Jérôme Kerviel
Jérôme Kerviel is a French trader who has been charged in the January 2008 Société Générale trading loss incident, resulting in losses valued at approximately €4.9 billion. Société Générale characterises Kerviel as a rogue trader and claims Kerviel worked these trades alone, and without its...
, trader with Société GénéraleSociété Générale is one of the main European financial services companies and also maintains extensive activities in others parts of the world. Its registered office on Boulevard Haussmann in Paris, while its headquarters are in the Tours Société Générale in the business district of La Défense and...
who lost approximately €The euro is the official currency of 16 of the 27 Member States of the European Union . The states, known collectively as the Eurozone, are Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia and Spain...
4.9 billion.
- Galway United F.C.
- CITIC#Unauthorized Forex trades
External links
- Nick Leeson Official Website of the Barings Rogue Trader
- http://www.numa.com/ref/barings/
- http://www.nytimes.com/books/first/f/fay-collapse.html
- Sir Miles Rivett-Carnac, Bt - Daily Telegraph obituary