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 spiralled 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 first-hand 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 remains 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.
Testimonials
Featured Projects
often considered together
Stephen Platt
Risk Management
Corporate Governance
Sarah Armstrong Smith
Cybersecurity
Crisis Management
Resilience
Julian Fisher
Influence
Negotiation
Communication
frequently asked questions
Something we've not covered here?
Nick Leeson structures his sessions around first-person testimony, walking audiences through the mechanics and psychology of his own decisions as the trader behind the Barings Bank collapse, then drawing direct lines to present-day failures in compliance and governance.
Nick Leeson speaks on rogue trading, financial risk and compliance, and corporate governance, drawing on his direct role in the 1995 collapse of Barings Bank. He caused losses of over $1.3 billion at one of Britain's oldest financial institutions, a scandal that became the subject of the Hollywood film Rogue Trader.
No. PepTalk adds no booking fee, so you pay the speaker's fee and nothing beyond it. The service, from shortlist through to contracts and event-day logistics, is included. For repeat or multi-event bookings, PepTalk can agree preferential rates with your procurement team.
Share your event date, audience, format, objectives and budget, and PepTalk sends a hand-picked shortlist within 24 hours. Each suggestion comes with a profile, a fee and a recommendation on the strongest fit. Once you choose, PepTalk handles contracts, travel and logistics through to event day.
The typical fee range is the speaker's standard in-person fee in their home market, shown in their local currency. It moves with format, location, date and session length: virtual sessions and shorter slots usually cost less, while international travel and peak dates cost more. Send your brief to PepTalk and the team will confirm the exact fee in your currency.
Not all of them, and it makes no difference to your booking. PepTalk's network of 15,000+ speakers covers talent the team works with directly alongside speakers represented by agents and agencies worldwide. PepTalk approaches the speaker, negotiates the fee and handles contracting either way.
Three to six months ahead is comfortable for most events, and 12 months is better for large conferences, peak-season dates or one specific in-demand speaker. Shorter timelines are workable, and PepTalk regularly fills last-minute and replacement bookings within days. Availability is the constraint, so get in touch as soon as you have a date.
