One trader's secret bets bankrupted Britain's oldest merchant bank in weeks

Nick Leeson, a derivatives trader in Barings' Singapore office, hid mounting losses from unauthorized bets in a secret error account for years. By early 1995 those losses had reached £827 million — more than the bank's entire capital. Barings, which had financed the Napoleonic Wars and the Louisiana Purchase since 1762, was declared insolvent and sold to a Dutch bank for £1.

— Standard economic and historical accounts, Barings Bank — Collapsed February 1995