Leeson did such a good job cleaning up the back-office problems in Indonesia
that the bank promoted him. His rise after that was meteoric. In
January 1992, Barings assigned Leeson to its newly opened Singapore
branch; shortly thereafter, he became head of derivatives trading at Barings’
Singapore office, Barings Futures Singapore (BFS). Leeson’s rise to prominence
was reflected in his annual bonuses, which were more than twice as
large as his annual salary.