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History Daily

The Barings Bank Collapse

History Daily

Airship | Noiser | Wondery

History

4.42.1K Ratings

🗓️ 26 February 2024

⏱️ 21 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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0:03.7

Listen with Wonder Plus in the Wonder App.

0:06.0

Or you can get all of History Daily, plus other fantastic history podcasts at

0:10.5

Into History.

0:11.6

com. It's March 2nd 1995 at the Frankfurt International Airport in Germany.

0:27.0

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

0:33.0

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

0:38.2

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

0:44.4

officers waiting on the tarmac. He shares an anxious look with his wife Lisa

0:48.8

who's sitting beside him. They both know who the police officers are looking for.

0:54.0

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

0:59.0

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

1:03.0

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

1:06.0

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

1:12.0

and losing millions in the process.

1:15.0

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

1:19.0

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

1:22.0

But this year, after accruing the equivalent of over

1:24.8

one billion dollars in losses, the bank has finally discovered the operation, and now Nick and

1:30.0

his wife are on the run. As the airplane slowly taxis to a stop at the gate,

1:35.2

Nick and Lisa don't make any sudden attempt to escape.

1:38.4

They simply grab their luggage from the overhead lockers

...

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