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History Daily

The Barings Bank Collapse (Original)

History Daily

Airship | Noiser | Wondery

History

4.42.1K Ratings

🗓️ 26 February 2024

⏱️ 16 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

February 26, 1995. One of Britain’s oldest and most prestigious banks collapses after suffering billion dollar losses on secret investments made by its employee Nick Leeson.


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Transcript

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0:00.0

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0:04.1

Listen with Wondry Plus in the Wondry app.

0:06.0

As a member of NoisorPlus at noisor.com or in Apple Podcasts,

0:10.6

or you can get all of History Daily plus other fantastic history podcasts at the Frankfurt International Airport in Germany.

0:30.6

28-year-old financial trader Nick Leeson gazes out the window of his plane as it touches down on the runway.

0:36.6

This stop in Germany is supposed to be a layover, just a brief stop on the trip from Singapore

0:41.9

back to London.

0:43.3

But as the plane slowly arrives at the gate, Nick can see a small group of German police

0:48.3

officers waiting on the tarmac.

0:50.4

He shares an anxious look with his wife Lisa who's sitting beside him.

0:54.4

They both know who the police officers are looking for.

0:58.2

For the last three years, Nick has been working as a general manager for Bering's bank,

1:02.9

overseeing futures trades on behalf of clients in Singapore and Japan.

1:07.4

At least, that's what Bering's thought Nick was doing.

1:10.8

In actuality, Nick was making his own trades, using the bank's money on high-risk, high-reward

1:15.8

bets, and losing millions in the process.

1:19.1

Up until now, he's been able to hide these losses with accounting tricks, making sure

1:23.3

that the higher-ups never caught on to what he was doing.

1:26.1

But this year, after accruing the equivalent of over $1 billion in losses,

1:30.7

the bank has finally discovered the operation,

1:33.2

and now Nick and his wife are on the run.

1:36.0

As the airplane slowly taxis to a stop at the gate,

...

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