Barings Bank

I went from Bain to AIG.

And at the time, there was a group called Barings Bank, which was founded in 1756.

It's one of the oldest banks in the world.

In 1995, the bank was brought to its knees by a rogue trader in Singapore who had done a lot of unauthorized trades.

And Rosa's husband, Dominic Lawson, who was a famous journalist, actually is a very well-known journalist.

And when I, and he had, he was friends with the Barings, Barings Bank, and he had like sort of- Blanche: That was what you're talking about? Maxwell: Before you met me.

Blanche: Before, so in...? Maxwell: The '80s.

Blanche: '80s, okay.

When its founder, John Kaiser Godeffroy, went bankrupt over Russian paper and Westphalian iron, his most considerable asset was found to be the South Sea business.

This passed, I understand, through the hands of Baring Brothers in London and is now run by a company rejoicing in the gargantuan name of the Deutsche Handels und Plantagen-Gesellschaft fur Südsee-Inseln zu Hamburg.

This piece of literature is in practice shortened to DH and PG, the old firm, the German firm, the firm, and among humorists, the long-handle firm.

Even from the deck of an approaching ship, the island is seen to bear its signature, the zones of cultivation showing a more vivid tint of green on the dark vest of forest.

Now, how come they started, it just started, you know, when they- Mm-hmm ... with HAARP, when HAARP was turned on? Um, they're bankrupting banks.

The Kobe earthquake bankrupted, um, I've forgotten the name, Barings Bank, which is the Queen's bank.

The royal family has owned part of it since the 1700s.

The Kobe earthquake bankrupted her bank.

Yeah, I think that in traitor style, they should get every single celebrity fan they've got.

So Curly Watts, the guy from Baring's Bank, the Gallaghers, get them all lined up and then they have to decide which one gets executed.

That took a dark turn.

Or, no, actually, what this should do, this should give them a choice.

[laughs]

Maybe I, like, like the Barings Bank guy.

Nick Leeson.

Yeah.

The systems that we trust, the people that we trust, the governance that we have in place for the different things.

And if you think about our banking programs, right? Do, do we, do you trust people with your money? Well, not everyone.

There are people that you do trust.

Right.

... that, that's why, you know, Australia's definitely moving towards a, you know, having some governance, visibility, AI controls, and there's lots of, uh, bodies working on that.

But I think we've been some early adopters of governance.

Like, if you think about banking regulation and things like that-

Yeah

Okay, so the last film on the list is Rogue Trader, which came out in 1998 and was based on Nick Leeson's autobiography.

Leeson worked his way up from a back office role at Barings Bank in the 1990s and was eventually sent to Singapore to head up Barings trading operation on the Simex exchange.

The film follows Leeson's rise and the antics he and his friends got up to when they start making a lot of money.

Whenever Leeson made a trading error, he hid his positions in a secret errors account, often doubling down on losses and exiting the positions when they got back to break even.

When its founder, John Kaiser Godeffroy, went bankrupt over Russian paper and Westphalian iron, his most considerable asset was found to be the South Sea business.

This passed, I understand, through the hands of Baring Brothers in London and is now run by a company rejoicing in the gargantuan name of the Deutsche Handels und Plantagen-Gesellschaft fur Südsee-Inseln zu Hamburg.

This piece of literature is in practice shortened to DH&PG, the old firm, the German firm, the firm, and among humorists, the long-handle firm.

Even from the deck of an approaching ship, the island is seen to bear its signature, the zones of cultivation showing a more vivid tint of green on the dark vest of forest.

That was a very tough period for most of the Western world.

Was that because of the Barings Bank had lent too much money to Argentina, which...

Yes, precipitated a banking crisis as a result because… Before

Nick Leeson finished it off in the 1990s.