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Case Study Of The Barings Bank

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How Nick Leeson Destroyed the Barings Bank
Introduction
How did a trader in Singapore directly cause the collapse of the 230-year-old merchant bank in England? Nick Leeson was the head of Barings Futures Singapore (BFS) which is one of the subsidiary companies of Barings Group. In 1995, His unauthorized trading activities made Barings completely went bankrupt. This is the biggest financial scandal of last century. By interpreting the Barings case and the COSO framework which contains five components of internal control system, we would have an idea of why Barings became insolvent and how to improve in designing, performing and evaluating internal control for the company.
Control Environment
1. Organizational Structure: The connection between departments in BFS is chaotic, which provides Leeson convenience …show more content…

Firstly, the internal control is extremely essential for the well-being of a company. Relevant internal controls over all businesses need to be constructed and performed regularly. Once internal audit identify any risk the company may encounter in the future, people need to respond immediately and resolve the problem right away. Secondly, the management teams need to realize that they have a duty to fully understand their businesses, strength, weakness, threats and opportunities of the company. Thirdly, for building an effective and efficient control system, clear and restricted segregation of duties is a significant and basic step. The lack of separation of responsibilities may lead to catastrophic consequence that is harmful for everyone within the group. Moreover, communication is a critical part of business and management. Effective communication brings win-win situation to both sides. Barings’ failure of risk management systems, internal controls and managerial confusion directly brought huge risks for the company and give Nick Leeson chances to conduct deceptive

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