The Obituary
Barings was Britain’s oldest merchant bank, founded in 1762, with a history that included financing the Louisiana Purchase and serving the Crown. In the early 1990s Nick Leeson, a trader in its Singapore office, made unauthorized bets on Japanese stock futures and concealed mounting losses in a hidden account numbered 88888. After the 1995 Kobe earthquake sent markets against him, the losses ballooned to about 827 million pounds, twice the bank’s available capital. Barings collapsed in February 1995 and was sold to the Dutch bank ING for the symbolic sum of one pound.
Worth remembering
- Founded in 1762, it was Britain's oldest merchant bank and once helped finance the Louisiana Purchase.
- A single trader, Nick Leeson, hid losses of about 827 million pounds in a secret account labelled 88888.
Sources
A graveyard tradition: leave a stone to show you came, and remembered.