...________________________________________________________________________ BARINGS – A CASE STUDY IN RISK MANAGEMENT AND INTERNAL CONTROLS Author: Hubert Edwards September 2004 In 1995 Britain’s oldest merchant bank of two hundred years came to a dramatic and fatal halt. The bank was Barings. The demise of the bank was brought about as a result of the actions of a derivative trader, Nick Leeson, stationed in Singapore. Without a careful and considered review one may be tempted to conclude that the blame rests solely at his door step. The analytical mind, may however ask: how is it possible that this one man was able to cripple a financial giant? What was the role of senior management in this situation and did they contribute to the demise? How effective were the internal control systems and was the Singapore operations managed effectively? The answer to these and similar questions would be indeed interesting and insightful in analyzing the debacle that Baring proved to be. Reported on very widely in the nineteennineties, this bank collapse still holds significant lessons for those involved in the management of financial institutions. The objective here is not to prove definitively the exact cause of the collapse but to show, by way of a very narrow discussion, how certain deficiencies in internal controls and risk management systems impacted the bank and ultimately led to its collapse. When Barings collapsed it had a capital of approximately $600 million. Contrast...
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...1. What was the case about? (Summary of the Case) The case was about how one man single-handedly brought down one of the world’s most historic banks. The man was Nick Leeson and it happened from 1992 to 1995. He did it while holding the position of general manager to Barings Securities in Singapore. As general manager he oversaw both trading and back office needs, something uncommon in the industry due to the fact that it eliminated necessary checks and balances that would prevent such fraud from occurring. He had authority to deal in futures and options order for clients or other firms within Barings and arbitraging price differences between Nikkei futures traded on the SIMEX and Osaka exchange, it was a low risk strategy meant to make small profits. Where Leeson went astray was when he began unauthorized speculation in futures on Nikkei 225 stock index and Japanese government bonds. These trades where highly risky due to the fact that they involved a highly leveraged strategy and depended solely on the markets movement upwards. This strategy is a double edged sword because even though it provided devastating results for Leeson it could of also provided incredible gains if the market would have gone up. Leeson essentially bet that the Nikkei was going to rise. Once the loses started coming in Leeson opened up a secret trading account, account 88888. The account was initially set up to cover a mistake done by one Leeson’s traders in which she mistakenly submitted a purchase...
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...Controls and the Collapse of Barings Bank __________________________________________________________________________________________ Commodities Trading: Nick Leeson, Internal Controls and the Collapse of Barings Bank By Sam Bhugaloo Page 1 of 21 Commodities Trading: Nick Leeson, Internal Controls and the Collapse of Barings Bank __________________________________________________________________________________________ Table of Content Introduction.................................................................................................................................3 Background and Overview… ......................................................................………… ........ .....4 Barings Bank...............................................................................................................................5 Internal Controls at Barings Bank.............................................................................................13 Lessons Learned and Steps Taken to Preclude Recurrences . ..................................................15 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................18 References.................................................................................................................................20 Page 2 of 21 Commodities Trading: Nick Leeson, Internal Controls and the Collapse of Barings Bank ____________________...
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...A Project on All That Glitters: The Fall of Barings Bank A CASE STUDY ON RISK MANAGEMENT AND INTERNAL CONTROLS Introduction: In 1995 Britain’s oldest merchant bank of two hundred years came to a dramatic and fatal halt. The bank was Barings. The demise of the bank was brought about as a result of the actions of a derivative trader, Nick Leeson, stationed in Singapore. Without a careful and considered review one may be tempted to conclude that the blame rests solely on Nick Leeson. But if you think with analytical mind, you will ask: how is it possible that this one man was able to cripple a financial giant? What was the role of senior management in this situation and did they contribute to the demise? How effective were the internal control systems, Risk management system and was the Singapore operations managed effectively? The answer to these and similar questions would be indeed interesting and insightful in analyzing the debacle of Baring Bank. Reported on very widely in the nineteen- nineties, this bank collapse still holds significant lessons for those involved in the management of financial institutions. The objective here is not to prove definitively the exact cause of the collapse but to show, by way of a very narrow discussion, how certain deficiencies in internal controls and risk management systems impacted the bank and ultimately led to its collapse. When Barings collapsed it had a capital of approximately $600 million. Contrast this with...
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...The first major problem the bank faced was in 1890 wherein the bank was almost declared insolvent due to excessive risk-taking on poor investments in Argentina. But it was nothing compared to what happened in the year 1995 when a rouge trader single-handedly led the oldest merchant bank to its end. In 1992, Nicholas “Nick” Leeson, an ambitious young back office banker who had joined three years earlier from Morgan Stanley, was put in charge of Barings Futures Singapore (BFS). The unit’s job was simply to trade futures contracts for clients. Leeson was put in charge of both the trading floor and transaction settlement operations. A year later, BFS began to trade using its own account, attempting to take advantage of the difference between futures on the Japanese and Singaporean exchanges to make a profit. Such arbitrage, referred to inside Barings as “switching”, was seen as “essentially risk-free and very profitable” by management in London, including its chairman Peter Baring. Table from slideshare.net Leeson, however, set up a secret account, number 88888, which he used to invest in the Japanese stocks, specifically in the Nikkei 225. Luck was not on Leeson’s side because by the end of 1994, account 88888 had lost about £200 million, but Barings’ London management were not aware. Leeson, as head of both front and back offices of the company, was able to disguise his losses as debts owed by Barings clients. However, on the morning of January 17, 1995, the devastating...
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...Who Killed Barings Bank? Management Principles and Dynamics I. Statement of the Problem What control strategy is appropriate with Barings Bank situation? II. Objectives Find the right control strategy model for Barings Bank to prevent another mismanagement of the bank. III. Areas of considerations/Assumptions A. Areas of considerations a. Corporate culture b. Financial c. Decision-Making d. Leadership / management e. External/Internal environment B. Assumptions a. The Bank’s top officials gives a free-hand to Mr. Leeson to manage the affairs of their Singapore branch b. Mr. Leeson is a great manipulator. c. Top Officials of Barings Bank knows the real situation (financial) in their Singapore branch d. Mr. Leeson gives a lot of money to Baring’s Top Official. IV. Theoretical Framework Financial Control Management of Financial performance that measures the following: a. Liquidity b. Leverage c. Asset management d. Profitability Financial ratios are ratios are useful for historical comparisons within barings banking firm and for external benchmarking. Financial budgets or goals are to be shared with employees and tracked to indicate success or failure...
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...Case study- The Collapse of Barings Bank 1. What was Nick Leeson’s strategy to earn trading profits on derivatives? The play here was very simple – trading futures on the Nikkei 225 as the underlying. The Nikkei 225 was traded as a future on both the SIMEX and the Osaka markets. There were always known to be differences between the two markets which could be arbitraged. The idea was to exploit the differences between the 2 markets , and execute in the cheaper market on client orders. This would then allow Barings to net a profit as they execute in the cheaper market but quote the client the price in the more expensive market. The underlying idea was of course to always be long one and short the other. Leeson was long Nikkei 225 futures, short Japanese government bond futures, and short both put and call options on the Nikkei Index. He was betting that the Nikkei index would rise, but instead, it fell, causing him to lose $1.39 billion. 2. What went wrong that caused his strategy to fail? Nick Leeson’s strategy failed because the Nikkei 225 index kept falling while he continued to bet that it would rise. On the 17th of January 1995 a huge earthquake struck Kobe in Japan. The Nikkei plummeted putting Leeson’s positions under a lot of stress. The Nikkei plunged to 17950 by the end of that week and Leeson started recording big losses. Leeson’s solution was however to ask for extra funds from London to meet his margin calls and continue trading. His view was that the move down...
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...ARUCAN, PEARLNETTE GAY JUNE V. MANAGEMENT ADVISORY SERVICES MWF 1:30-3:30 ROBERT KIYOSAKI Who is Robert Kiyosaki? A fourth-generation Japanese American, Kiyosaki was born and raised in Hilo, Hawaii. After graduating from Hilo High School, he attended the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy in New York, graduating with the class of 1969 as a deck officer. He is an investor, businessman, self-help author, motivational speaker, financial literacy activist, and occasional financial commentator. Kiyosaki is perhaps best known for his Rich Dad Poor Dad series of motivational books. As a devout global financial literacy advocate, Kiyosaki has been a staunch proponent ofentrepreneurship, business education, investing, and that comprehensive financial literacyconcepts should be taught in schools around the world. Why did he filed for bankruptcy? Robert Kiyosaki filed for corporate bankruptcy through one of his companies, Rich Global LLC. Rich Global LLC filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection on Aug. 20 in a Wyoming bankruptcy court. Kiyosaki and his bankruptcy attorney did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The company had been weighed down by a lawsuit filed by Learning Annex, one of Kiyosaki's earliest backers who had helped arrange his public speaking events earlier on. Bill Zanker, the founder and president of Learning Annex, sued Kiyosaki after he allegedly failed to pay a percentage of profits from his speaking engagements. A district judge in New York...
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...Barings Bank and Nick Leeson Introduction I would like to present the case of Barings Bank, one of the most famous histories in the world when one man led to the bankruptcy the oldest British bank. Barings collapsed on February 26, 1995, due to the activities of one trader, Nick Leeson, who lost almost $1.4 billion. The loss was caused by a large exposure to the Japanese stock market, which was achieved through the futures market. Leeson, the chief trader for Barings Futures in Singapore, had been accumulating positions in stock index futures on the Nikkei 225, a portfolio of Japanese stocks. As the market fell more than 15 percent in the first two months of 1995, Barings Futures suffered huge losses, which were made even higher due to the sale of options, which implied a bet on a stable market. As losses mounted, Leeson increased the size of the position, in a stubborn belief he was right. Finally, on 25 February 1995 he walked away, when he realized that bank was unable to make the cash payments required by the exchanges. Later, he sent a fax to his superiors, offering “sincere apologies for the predicament that I have left you in.” Nick Leeson had totally wiped out the venerable 233-year-old Baring Investment Bank, which proudly counted Queen Elizabeth as a client. He left behind huge liabilities totaling $1.4 billion, more than the entire capital and reserves of the British institution. This situation - and a similar scam at the New York branch of Japan's Daiwa Bank in October...
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...movie, Rogue Trader, narrates the true story of a man named Nick Leeson. He brought the Barings Bank down, which was one of the most venerable financial institutions in England. Nick Leeson was played.. iolations Short Essay The movie, Rogue Trader, narrates the true story of a man named Nick Leeson. He brought the Barings Bank down, which was one of the most venerable iolations Short Essay The movie, Rogue Trader, narrates the true story of a man named Nick Leeson. He brought the Barings Bank down, which was one of the most venerable financial institutions in England. Nick Leeson was played.. iolations Short Essay The movie, Rogue Trader, narrates the true story of a man named Nick Leeson. He brought the Barings Bank down, which was one of the most venerable financial institutions in England. Nick Leeson was played.. iolations Short Essay The movie, Rogue Trader, narrates the true story of a man named Nick Leeson. He brought the Barings Bank down, which was one of the most venerable financial institutions in England. Nick Leeson was played.. iolations Short Essay The movie, Rogue Trader, narrates the true story of a man named Nick Leeson. He brought the Barings Bank down, which was one of the most venerable financial institutions in England. Nick Leeson was played.. iolations Short Essay The movie, Rogue Trader, narrates the true story of a man named Nick Leeson. He brought the Barings Bank down, which was one of the most venerable financial institutions in England. Nick Leeson...
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... You are a new graduate, and you just got the job of a lifetime at the New York office of one of the big accounting firms. Yesterday, the managing partner, Connie Rise, set up an appointment for you to meet with her today. “Good morning,” she says, as you wonder what you have done to be summoned to her office at 8 a.m. You are still reeling from relocating to New York and working in this fast-paced environment. Here you are, plucked from a small city located among wine farms and rolling hills on the central coast of California and plunged right into the thick of things in New York City. But you love your new environment. You earn a great salary, pay exorbitant rent for a tiny apartment, and are on the audit team for one of the leading banks in the U.S. You couldn’t sleep because of the traffic noise last night, so you stayed up far too late reading the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations’ (COSO) Internal Control-Integrated Framework and tried to figure out how it relates to your first real audit. “Please sit down,” Ms. Rise continues. “How has your first...
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...on Case Analysis: “The Barings collapse: breakdowns in organizational culture and management” Prepared by: Valeriya Yun ID: 201005032 SolBridge International School of Business, 2012 Introduction How it is possible that one person became an important reason for the world-known financial institution collapse? But it is, and this guy is Nick Leeson who brought the Barings bank to bankruptcy with losses of $1.4 billion, even though here he played an antihero role we cannot deny his talent. This paper provides an analysis of the case, introduction of the whole picture depicted in the case, Nick Leeson activities and operations, and of course assessment of internal control and some other problems in their structure which also influenced the bank collapse. An analysis is followed by conclusion and final recommendations. Barings Bank overview Barings Bank was founded in 1762 and in the beginning of the 1980s still had a reputation as one of the oldest in England and world’s most pre-eminent financial institutions. During their long history they have already been on the edge but that time they were saved by the Bank of England. But in 1995 as a result of Nick Leeson activities, the Barings Bank collapsed. In 1980s there was a vogue to buy or acquire stockbroking and jobbing firms and Barings Bank followed the tendency and bought Henderson Crosthwaite and built up the significant business BSL which had an operational independence of Barings Brothers & Co. Nick Leeson...
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...Controls and the Collapse of Barings Bank __________________________________________________________________________________________ Commodities Trading: Nick Leeson, Internal Controls and the Collapse of Barings Bank By Sam Bhugaloo Page 1 of 21 Commodities Trading: Nick Leeson, Internal Controls and the Collapse of Barings Bank __________________________________________________________________________________________ Table of Content Introduction.................................................................................................................................3 Background and Overview… ......................................................................………… ........ .....4 Barings Bank...............................................................................................................................5 Internal Controls at Barings Bank.............................................................................................13 Lessons Learned and Steps Taken to Preclude Recurrences . ..................................................15 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................18 References.................................................................................................................................20 Page 2 of 21 Commodities Trading: Nick Leeson, Internal Controls and the Collapse of Barings Bank ____________________...
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...Rogue Trader How many times can you go double or nothing before you wind up a billion pounds in debt? In “Rogue Trader”, a film based on the life on Nick Leeson, we get a glimpse into this real world dilemma. The drama begins with Leeson’s promotion to general manager of Barings Futures Singapore. As general manager, he faces a personal quandary and must decide whether to cover for a friend and coworker who made an honest mistake (one that resulted in the loss of a substantial amount of money) or to turn the same person in to face termination. Leeson chooses loyalty to his friend over loyalty to the bank, and covers up the losses by creating an error account. This account served to hide said losses while Leeson tried to make back the money that was lost. After experiencing additional losses, Leeson hit a lucky streak and was able to make up the money due to market growth. However, the profound effects of making so much money in the market quickly got to his head. Riding on the coattails of this success, coupled with other catalytic factors that created another loss, he was once again put in the same position to make up lost dollars in the market. From this point on, we see Leeson gamble on the market, doubling down and hiding his losses from everyone around him until his debt becomes insurmountable. Based on Leeson’s actions, the two COSO components most violated are risk assessment and control activities, of which many examples can be seen throughout the movie. Risk Assessment...
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...Rogue Trader COSO Control Questionnaire Control Environment: 1). The possibility of Nick Leeson being able to defraud Barings can be explained by the lack of management supervision. Since Leeson was making a lot of money for the company, senior executives didn’t punish him. Here are three examples of this: * The funding kept coming even after company realized that Singapore law had funding restrictions * Senior Executives didn’t punish Leeson for the violations he had committed * After Leeson was arrested, management didn’t seek any ways to comment on his actions. 2). Barings bank was more concerned with the bottom line profits rather than compliance with the code of conduct. The film didn’t exactly show if Barings had a code of conduct for its employees. However, it is reasonable to assume that there was one. Nevertheless, senior executives allowed key employees, who were generating sufficient profits for the company, the freedom of actions. 3). The performance and incentive compensation targets portrayed in the movie were unreasonable and unrealistic. For instance, Leeson got a call in the middle of the night from the Head of the Barings Financial Products Group in London, Ron Baker, telling Leeson that he has to generate another two million pounds next month to secure their bonuses. Such unrealistic goals provoked Leeson to manipulate incentive compensation plan results by hiding losses in an account 88888 to make various transactions look profitable. 4)...
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