How the hell is this possible?

" Gilles Glicenstein, BNP Paribas chief executive, suggested that "there is still some information missing to understand what happened" at Societe Generale. "

Understatement of the year.

But to answer your question Dev, massive incompetence by numerous authorities inside and outside the bank

Which is why the Financial authority in Singapore cam out all holier than thou during the Nick leeeson scnadalas their Futures Exchnage would have known the extent of the positions and known they were excessive.
 
Yes but how incompetent do they have to be to lose $7bn? They are now supposed to have systems in place to ensure "Nick Leeson" isn't repeated again.

After the scandals with US sub prime lending, any bank needs this like a hole in the head. Just think of all the HiFi and music you could have bought with that money?:D.
 
Too early to speculate what exactly happened. i suspect that the Bank will not be too keen to let the exact details of how he was allowed to do this emerge as it would make them look...well bad.

In fact the guy from BNP Paribas eludes to this saying he hopes they will be totally open about the whole thing but I just don't think its in them to do so.

I was working at Baring Bank when it collapsed BTW.
 
It happens all the time. Amaranth bragged about their state of the art risk management system then when it all went wrong and they lost billions it turned out the janitor was doing a few sums on the back of an envelope each night after close of trading! The investment industry is all about perception.
 
According to the Beeb he also exposed the bank to £40 billion in dodgy liabilities that had to be dumped quickly last week -the bank didn't let on and which in turn gave rise to the panic rate cut by the Fed who misread the markets!!!!-one bloke on 70k a year!!!
 

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