Total Risk: Nick Leeson and the Fall of Barings Bank

by Judith H. Rawnsley

Book Overview

Provides an inside account of the shocking bankruptcy of the two-hundred-year-old British bank and the twenty-eight-year-old rogue trader in Singapore who caused its collapse. Reprint. PW. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0887307817
• ISBN13: 9780887307812
• Release Date: January 1995
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
• Length: 206 Pages
• Weight: 1.14 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.4" x 9.5"

Customer Reviews

An Enjoyable Read

Unlike the previous reviewer, I found the book to be a captivating and educational read! The plot held my attention throughout the book, even through the technical descriptions of how investment futures work. I felt that the book was a balanced blend of story and analysis. If you want more than a superficial account of the Barings debacle, this is a good book for you.It is true that this author focuses as much on the role of management in the fall of Barings as on Nick Leeson's role in it, which is fine. It is an opinion that she substantiates somewhat persuasively throughout the book. The reader gets the sense that Nick was just an opportunist who took advantage of a glaring management weakness at Barings. (The author will not be able to persuade you, however, that Nick is just a good guy who slipped. He's scum. I think the author was too lenient with him.) But through her account of Baring Bank's mismanagement of its Futures division, the author provides a very useful lesson for senior management out there.