Nick Leeson - the main anti-hero of the century
When studying the stories of successful people, it is very important not only to absorb the spirit of the winner, but also to study the mistakes that,
in one way or another, could have changed the lives of these people.
Nick Leeson's story is a prime example of how simple greed and fear can lead to irreparable consequences. This isn't just a typical bankruptcy story, but a national problem that has seen many UK savers say goodbye to their savings forever.
Nick Leeson was born in 1967 in the secluded town of Watford. His family was quite ordinary and lacked any financial advantages, as his father, the main breadwinner, worked as a simple plasterer.
In fact, it was his father who hatched plans to improve Nick's future and wanted to make his son a builder, or more precisely, an engineer.
However, from a very young age, Nick envisioned himself as a financier, handling large amounts of capital. Interestingly, despite his finance-related dreams, he struggled with mathematics, regularly failing various tests.
The beginning of a financial career
After graduating from college, Nick was incredibly lucky, being immediately hired by Barings, one of England's oldest and most respected banks. At a very young age, he began actively pursuing his professional career, which involved the execution of exchange contracts.
Life began to smooth out around him so successfully that Nick found his life partner in the same bank, whom he eventually married.
Nick Leeson excelled at his job, and no one understood the bank's paperwork better than him. Therefore, management quickly noticed the promising young man and decided to send him to the subsidiary, which was located in Singapore.
Of course, at first glance, this doesn't seem like a promotion, but it was the Singapore subsidiary that handled the exchange trading, or more precisely, what was known as guaranteed-income hedging. Nick's primary responsibility was to carry out central management's orders and monitor the market situation.
First successes
Within a year, Nick had brought in over £8.8 million for his bank, and a year later, that figure had exceeded £22 million. As profitability grew, so did Nick's financial income, and within just two years, he became the chief broker in the Singapore branch, reporting exclusively to the head office.
Star fever and the first glimmers of greed
Nick Leeson, having developed a star fever, decided to break away from the bank's established trading system and risk larger sums. In his book, Nick writes that he simply wanted to curry favor with the bank and bring it more money.
In fact, everything turned out the other way around, and in the first year of his idea, he caused Barings a £2 million loss. However, thanks to his mastery of the organization's documents, he managed to conceal the loss. After hiding everything, Nick became consumed by greed and a desire to recoup his losses, which led to a further £21 million loss.
However, even in this case, thanks to manipulation, the largest bank does not know about its enormous losses, and in return pays a simply enormous salary to its best employee.
Fatal Mistake: Escape from the Country
The longer Nick Leeson worked and hid his losses, the more he wanted to recoup his losses. A fatal mistake that forever changed the lives of thousands of ordinary people occurred in 1995. Then Nick decided to buy the Nikkei index, but a short time later, an earthquake struck, causing the index to collapse.
Blinded by greed and a thirst for recoupment, Nick continues buying the falling index in the hopes of reversing the market. Ultimately, the market reverses him, and in the first month after this experiment, he loses $619 million, bringing his total loss to £827 million.
Realizing there was no way out, Nick fled the country, leaving only a fax with apologies to his boss. When management began to analyze the situation, it turned out the bank was already bankrupt, and due to the fraudster's actions, thousands of people had lost their deposits.
As a result, Nick did not enjoy his freedom for long and was arrested a week later and sentenced by the Singaporean court to six and a half years in prison.
