4. The unauthorised trading was concealed by a number of devices. These included the
suppression of account '88888' from Barings in London (which account was mentioned only
in the margin files and did not attract the attention of Barings in London); the submission of
falsified reports to London; the misrepresentation of the profitability of BFS's trading; and a
number of false trading transactions and accounting entries. The internal account No. 88888
had been opened up as long ago as 1992, which raises the question of who was responsible
for reconciling suspense accounts, and why did neither the internal nor external auditors
pick up on this during their regular audits.
5. Management in the head‐office fell into the trap of hesitating to restrain a trader who
appeared to be generating a disproportionate amount of profits (25% of the total) from
essentially a low‐risk, supposedly no‐to‐low income generating area of the bank. The
bank’s Chairman did acknowledge that the bank was aware of the risks because “...it was
possible to hedge its contracts simultaneously, leaving the bank with minimum exposure to
market movements”, but claimed no knowledge of how Leeson operated!
6. Management in London failed to ensure that remuneration of one of their “star traders”
did not encourage risk taking (i.e. the bonus portion of his remuneration was too closely
tied to his performance). Leeson’s salary was reportedly only £50,000 but his anticipated
annual bonus for 1994 was £450,000 – nine time his salary, and an increase from £130,000
the previous year!)