Illegal Trading Destroys Barings, Britain’s Oldest Bank
At a glance:
- Series: Great Events: 1900-2001
- Categories: Economics, Crime
- Subcategories: Business, Banks, Banking, Finance
- Curriculum: 20th & 21st Century European History, British History
- Geographical Location: Southeast Asia, Singapore
- Date: February 26, 1995
Article abstract: Barings Bank, the oldest merchant bank in Great Britain doing business continuously since 1762, collapsed under losses suffered because of one of its traders.
A Bank Falls
The story of the collapse of Barings Bank is largely the story of one man. Great Britain’s oldest commercial bank, operating continuously since 1762, was forced to close because of unwise and unregulated trades.
Twenty-eight years old at the time of the bank’s collapse, Nicholas W. Leeson had been hired by Barings in 1989, after his graduation from high...
[The entire page is 1036 words long]
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