The story of Nick Leeson, an ambitious investment broker who singlehandedly bankrupted one of the oldest and most important banks in Britain.
Ambitious, wide-eyed boy Nick Leeson (Ewan McGregor) is determined to rise in the world and be more than a simple bank clerk. When his employers, Barings Bank, offer him the opportunity to go to Jakarta, Indonesia to sort out a problem that nobody else wants, he seizes the opportunity with both hands. In Jakarta, he meets and marries Lisa (Anna Friel), and together they go to Singapore when the bank offers him the job of setting up their future options trading operation. To save money, the bank allows Nick to operate the floor trading and the back office facilities, and force him to employ cheap, unskilled staff. His first year of trading is a big success, and he makes large profits for the bank, even though he has illegally broken trading rules and secretly covered up losses. Given more freedom, even more money, and continuing unchecked, Nick starts to make losses, and again attempts to trade out of them, but this time he comes unstuck as his illegal trading generates even bigger losses. After the death of his unborn child, Nick completely loses control and gambles without restraint with other people's money leading inevitably to a complete financial meltdown, and the bankruptcy of the bank.—Mark Smith <[email protected]>
Rogue Trader tells the true story of Nick Leeson (Ewan McGregor), an employee of Barings Bank who after a successful spell working for the firm's office in Indonesia is sent to Singapore as General Manager of the Trading Floor on the SIMEX exchange. The movie follows Leeson's rise as he soon becomes one of Barings' key traders. However, everything isn't as it appears - through the 88888 error account, Nick is hiding huge losses as he gambles away Baring's money with little more than the bat of an eyelid from the powers-that-be back in London.
Nick is a clerk at the world's oldest Private Bank, Barings. He aspires to do more & is given an opportunity by his boss Tony Hawes (Tim McInnerny) to go to Indonesia and sort out the issue of bearer bonds worth £100 MM. The bonds had been issued by Barings, but don't match the value printed on paper as the markets have moved down and hence customers are refusing to accept it. Nick works diligently and sorts the mess out, recovering money from customers. Lisa (Anna Friel) is sent by Barings to help Nick. Lisa & Nick start having sex with each other & eventually get married.
Peter Baring (John Standing) is the chairman of the Bank & likes the futures trading business, which has high RoI & low investments.Nick is promoted to start his own trading operation in Singapore & is allowed to hire a fresh crew. He is to handle both trading & settlements. He is only authorized to trade on client's accounts & not on Bank's accounts. He starts slow & things move in the right direction. He asks his secy to create a error posting account (calls it 88888 for good luck). One of his trader makes a mistake and loses £20K.
Nick starts to trade on his own account to make up losses, but they only grow as the market keeps moving opposite to his bets. Soon losses are $10 MM. Nick is forced to ask for more money from London office, but has to get more customers so that he can justify these cash calls. Pierre Beaumarchais (Yves Beneyton) is a large volume trader, who gives Nick his business. But Pierre is a hawk on price and forces Nick to use his own trades to manipulate the market to get Pierre the right price. The markets start moving in the right direction & soon Nick makes up all of his losses.
Nick is the star trader at Barings & attracts attention of his new boss Ron Baker (Nigel Lindsay) & auditor Ash Lewis (Caroline Langrishe). Ash is surprised that Nick handles both trading and settlement as there are no checks and balances in this system. Ash is called back to London & Nick is saved for the moment.
But the addiction to the 88888 account continues and soon Nick is $78 MM in losses. He has to ask for $2 MM in funding from London to keep margin calls requirements. He is called to London by Ron Baker to share his success secrets in a an internal traders convention. He meets Brenda Granger (Betsy Brantley), the person who has been providing the funding to his trading operation in Singapore. Nick avoids speaking to Brenda & goes back to Singapore.
Lisa has a miscarriage & goes into depression. Nick reaches his tipping point & decides that he would start manipulating the market to move in the direction he wanted. He starts taking bigger positions on the 88888 account & the funding requirement from London goes to $ 30 MM in a day.To hide the $78 MM in losses from the auditors, Nick creates a fictitious trade with forged signatures from both parties. He also authorizes a movement from funds from the clients account to his own account, to show the payment. He clears audit and everyone is happy. But the way accounts are arranged, it shows that Nick has used $78 MM from London to pay his client. So, he owes $78 MM to his internal funding team in London, which means Brenda.
Kobe earthquake hits Japan. Nick is long on Nikkei, meaning that he is betting for market to move up, but it starts to crash. Nick decides to again manipulate the market into moving up. He burns $ 50 MM, but barely makes a dent in a free-fall market. The funding calls to London increase to unsustainable levels & attract attention from Ron and Brenda. The funding calls reach $ 30 MM per day.
The losses in the 88888 account balloon to $ 230 MM. Nick reckons is the Nikkei stays above 18000, he still can break even on his positions. The market starts tanking & he buys even more calls to support the market. But he doesn't move the index & the Nikkei ends at 17600. Nick knew he was beaten.
Eventually the losses mount up to well over £800 million and Nick, along with his wife Lisa, decide to leave Singapore and escape to Malaysia. Nick doesn't realize the severity of his losses until he reads in the newspaper that Barings has gone bankrupt. They then decide to return to London but Nick is arrested en route in Frankfurt. Nick is extradited to Singapore where he is sentenced to six and a half years in jail and is diagnosed with colon cancer. Because of this, he did not complete his sentence.
