Barings Bank — Museum of the Fallen

The Obituary

Barings was Britain’s oldest merchant bank, founded in London in 1762 by Francis Baring, with a history that included financing the Louisiana Purchase and serving the Crown. In the early 1990s Nick Leeson, a trader in its Singapore office, made unauthorized bets on Japanese stock futures and concealed mounting losses in a hidden account numbered 88888. After the 1995 Kobe earthquake sent markets against him, the losses ballooned to about 827 million pounds, twice the bank’s available capital. Barings collapsed in February 1995 and was sold to the Dutch bank ING for the symbolic sum of one pound.

Worth remembering

Founded in 1762, it was Britain's oldest merchant bank and once helped finance the Louisiana Purchase.
A single trader, Nick Leeson, hid losses of about 827 million pounds in a secret account labelled 88888.

Gallery

Portrait of the partners of Baring Brothers & Co in the 1920s, decades before the bank's 1995 collapse Public domain

A Barings Brothers circular letter of credit issued in 1892, a financial instrument of the historic London merchant bank Public domain

Watch

Baring Brothers Bank collapse newsreel, 1995 — AP Archive

Sources

Barings Bank collapsed in 1995 after trader Nick Leeson hid losses of 827 million pounds and was bought by ING for one pound Wikipedia
Nick Leeson's unauthorized derivatives trading caused losses that bankrupted Barings BBC News
Barings, founded in 1762 and Britain's oldest merchant bank, collapsed on 27 February 1995 after Singapore-based trader Nick Leeson ran up about £830 million in losses on unauthorised derivatives bets; the bank was then sold to ING for a token £1. Encyclopaedia Britannica

A graveyard tradition: leave a stone to show you came, and remembered.