Editor’s Comment: The weakest link?

Bringing about the total collapse of a bank may not be the criminal activity of your average ‘fingers in the till’ employee but rogue traders aside employee fraud is becoming a very real problem and bosses should be wary of turning a ‘Barings blind eye’ to the issues.

There are evident lessons to be learnt from the Nick Leeson story, the trader who ruined Barings bank by gambling away £1.3 billion on the stock markets. Fortunately, most employees wouldn’t have the nerve or audacity to risk it all in the Leeson manner but the blame can’t lie at the rogue trader’s door entirely.

According to the BBC website questions should be asked of the conduct of Barings: “An internal memo dated in 1993 had warned the London headquarters about allowing Leeson to be both trader and settlement officer. ‘We are in danger of setting up a system that will prove disastrous.’ Nothing was done.”

In the past two years the cost of employee fraud has doubled.