Barings Bank Collapse

The collapse of barings bank in february 1995 was caused by colossal losses incurred by a single rogue trader.

Barings bank collapse.

Twenty years ago nick leeson caused the collapse of barings the city s oldest merchant bank and banker to the queen. The bank collapsed in 1995 after suffering losses of 827 million resulting from fraudulent investments primarily in futures contracts conducted by its employee nick leeson working at its. Leeson was attempting to gain from arbitrage spreads between singapore and japanese exchanges. Extremely competitive and improperly policed.

Nick leeson the collapse of barings bank. The collapse of barings bank in february 1995 was caused by colossal losses incurred by a single rogue trader. Barings banks was a british merchant bank that collapsed in 1995 after one of its traders 28 year old nick leeson operating in its singapore office lost 1 3 billion in unauthorized trades. Nick leeson the bank s then 28 year old head of derivatives in singapore gambled.

He plead guilty to two counts of deceiving bank auditors including forging documents and cheating the simex. Barings bank collapse was brought on by the bfs group starting to trade with its own account. Nick leeson the bank s then 28 year old head of derivatives in singapore gambled. Once a behemoth in the banking industry barings was brought to its knees by a rogue trader in a singapore office.

Founded in 1762 barings bank was britain s oldest merchant bank and queen elizabeth s personal bank. Barings a 233 year old bank collapsed overnight and was bought by ing for 1. Leeson fled to malaysia thailand and finally to germany where he was arrested and extradited to singapore. Nick leeson on banking.

By jesse colombo this article was written on march 15th 2005 in february of 1995 one man single handedly bankrupted the bank that financed the napoleonic wars louisiana purchase and the erie canal.