But it is wrong to blame one individual. The risk managers of Canadian investment bank CIBC
recently compared the Orange County failure to that of Barings Bank, pointing out that in these
otherwise very different debacles, the man in charge showed excellent results at first, and was
therefore allowed to transact without proper surveillance or controls (Crouhy et al, 2001). Orange
County is primarily a story of what happens when the desire for excess returns overrides
risk oversight.