cover image Total Risk: Nick Leeson and the Fall of Barings Bank

Total Risk: Nick Leeson and the Fall of Barings Bank

Judith H. Rawnsley. HarperCollins Publishers, $24 (0pp) ISBN 978-0-88730-781-2

How could 28-year-old rogue trader Nicholas Leeson have brought down Britain's oldest investment firm, Barings Bank, the blue-blooded merchant bank that financed the Louisiana Purchase and the British Empire's expansion? Sent from London to a back-office job in Singapore in 1992, inexperienced, cocky Leeson soon became chief trader for the subsidiary, Baring Futures. While apparently earning superprofits betting on ``derivatives,'' futures contracts pegged to fluctuations of Japan's stock exchange, he was actually, according to Rawnsley, racking up huge losses and concealing his unauthorized trading activities in a mislabeled account. By the time top management discovered his reckless bets, his losses had reached 827 million. Leeson, now in a German prison pending extradition to Singapore, was the catalyst for a disaster waiting to happen, declares Rawnsley, a Hong Kong-based journalist and former research analyst for Barings Securities (Japan) Ltd. She blames Barings's downfall on lax management, incompetence and inadequate oversight, all of which caused bank managers to ignore numerous warning signals regarding Leeson's speculation. This stunning cautionary tale tells the inside story of one of the most spectacular debacles in modern financial history. Photos. (Nov.)