Available to book
Nick Leeson
Transform risk management and ethical leadership with Nick Leeson, speaker on financial risk and corporate governance. Nick works with financial institutions to prevent misconduct and strengthen oversight, delivering powerful insights from his experience in the Barings Bank collapse.
Nick Leeson is best known as the rogue trader who brought down Barings Bank, one of the oldest and most prestigious financial institutions in Britain. His actions, driven by unchecked ambition and mounting pressure, resulted in losses of over $1.3 billion and exposed critical flaws in risk management and regulatory oversight. His story remains one of the most infamous financial scandals in history.
Nick began his career as a clerk at Coutts Bank before rising through the ranks of various financial institutions. By the early 1990s, he was entrusted with a key trading role at Barings, overseeing operations on the Singapore Monetary Exchange. Initially seen as a star performer, he concealed mounting losses in a secret account, hoping to recover through increasingly risky trades. When the losses spiraled out of control, Barings collapsed, leading to his arrest, conviction, and a prison sentence in Singapore.
After serving four years in prison and surviving a battle with cancer, Nick rebuilt his life, studying psychology and forging a new career as a speaker and commentator on financial risk, corporate misconduct, and resilience. His firsthand experience offers a unique perspective on the consequences of poor oversight and personal decision-making under pressure. His insights continue to be relevant in an era where financial scandals and regulatory failures remain a pressing concern.
Topics, sessions and talks
Nick Leeson’s actions brought down Barings Bank, but the financial world has since seen even more audacious cases of rogue trading and corporate malpractice. Despite regulatory reforms, gaps in oversight, weak compliance structures, and a failure to learn from past mistakes continue to leave institutions vulnerable. With first-hand experience of the consequences of unchecked risk, Nick offers a candid exploration of corporate responsibility, regulatory blind spots, and the ongoing challenges in financial governance. Audiences gain a stark reminder of why transparency matters and how businesses can protect themselves from history repeating itself.
Nick Leeson’s meteoric rise and dramatic fall from grace remain one of the most infamous financial scandals in history. As the trader whose unchecked risk-taking led to the collapse of Barings Bank, Nick takes audiences behind the scenes of the high-stakes world of investment banking, revealing how ambition, pressure, and human error can spiral into disaster. With gripping detail and raw honesty, he unpacks the mechanics of rogue trading, the psychology behind his decisions, and the wider implications for financial institutions today. His story is both a cautionary tale and an unparalleled insight into the darker side of finance.
Gain a deeper understanding of financial risk, corporate accountability, and the human factors behind major failures. Nick Leeson’s story provides an unfiltered look at how small missteps can escalate into large-scale disasters, equipping your organisation with valuable lessons on compliance and risk management.
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frequently asked questions
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To book Nick Leeson, email hello@getapeptalk.com or call PepTalk on +44 20 3835 2929 (UK) or +1 737 888 5112 (US), and one of our speaker agents will contact you within hours to confirm Nick's availability and speaking fee. If you can, please include your budget upfront – it helps us fast-track your request. It’s also helpful to know the date, format (virtual or in-person), location, and about your audience.
Nick Leeson structures his sessions around first-hand testimony from his role in the Barings Bank collapse, walking audiences through the mechanics of rogue trading, the psychology behind his decisions, and the systemic failures in oversight that allowed the losses to escalate unchecked.
Nick Leeson speaks on the failings of financial governance, the mechanics of rogue trading, and corporate risk and compliance. He is the trader whose unchecked positions caused losses of over $1.3 billion and brought down Barings Bank in 1995, a story later adapted into the Hollywood film Rogue Trader.
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