Rogue trader Nick Leeson: There will be more financial scandals while people go unpunished
Infamous trader speaks out on 20th anniversary of the collapse of Barings Bank
Twenty years after he brought down one of the world’s oldest banks, Rogue Trader Nick Leeson believes the ills of the financial sector are simply “not fixable”.
Leeson was the junior derivatives trader who gambled and lost HK$9.93 billion causing the 1995 collapse of Barings Bank and earning him a lengthy jail term.
Speaking to the South China Morning Post, the man who came to be the embodiment of the flawed financial wheeler-dealer claimed little of the “culture” that has brought shame on the financial sector in recent years has changed.
And despite numerous breaches of regulations and the global crash of 2007 Leeson is convinced many more scandals lie ahead.
But, unlike the UK and USA, he believes both Hong Kong and Singapore are better placed than other markets to avoid such wrongdoing. Traders in the two Asia’s banking hubs are less likely to bend the rules as they under they will face the full force of law, Leeson said.
He will be back in Hong Kong - his favourite holiday destination - in early May as a speaker at two conferences. Leeson admits he will take a look at some of his old haunts to see how things here have changed too.