Baring Brothers

UK merchant bank, founded in 1763 by John (1730–1816) and Francis Baring (1740–1810). The bank went into administration in February 1995 after its leading trader in Singapore, Nick Leeson, lost around £250 million of its assets in unauthorized transactions, mainly high-risk derivative contracts. The bank was able to resume trading in March 1995 after being purchased by a Dutch company, Internationale Nederlanden Groep NV.

Leeson was sentenced by a Singapore court in December 1995 to six and a half years in prison for his actions in the affair. In May 1995, 21 executives who had also been found to be partially responsible for the bank's crash resigned.

The oldest merchant bank in London, Baring Brothers adopted its name in 1807. By the 1830s it was one of the world's most important banking houses, underwriting the purchase of Louisiana from the French, for example, and financing much of the railway development in North America.

The bank collapsed in 1890 following a default on debt repayments by the Argentine government, leading to the first-ever intervention in the British banking system by the Bank of England, which injected some £17 million to prevent the bank suspending payments and consequent financial catastrophe. The business was later refounded and control subsequently passed back to descendants of the original founders.