Nick Leeson
Photographer: Chris J. Ratcliffe/BloombergWall Street’s ‘Original Rogue Trader’ Nick Leeson Is Starting to Get Worried
Leeson reflects on the push to roll back certain financial regulations three decades after his own rogue trades sparked the collapse of one of the UK’s most venerated financial institutions.
As a growing chorus of bankers and politicians around the world demand the roll-back of crisis-era regulations, Nick Leeson — the former rogue derivatives trader who brought down one of the UK’s most venerated financial institutions — is starting to get worried.
Leeson, whose illicit trades sparked the collapse of 230-year-old Barings Bank and sent him to prison for four years, said he fears that in its push to keep pace with US President Donald Trump’s deregulation drive, the UK could face some unforseen risks to its financial stability.