Barings directors' jobs blocked
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Your support makes all the difference.A group of directors at Barings securities have been blocked by the Securities and Futures Authority from taking on new roles with the investment bank since its takeover by a Dutch bank.
The SFA has refused the handful of senior executives the right to re- register with it as working for the new Barings.
It has defied requests made by the Bank of England to let the executives continue working until the investigations into the collapse of Barings are completed.
The directors involved, fewer than 10, include Andrew Tuckey, deputy chairman of Barings, Peter Norris, head of securities, and James Bax.
When ING, a Dutch bank, bought the Barings name, it set up new companies, leaving the shells of the old collapsed Barings in the hands of the administrators. Nearly all employees were transferred to the new Barings, getting automatic re-registration from the SFA, which must licence all investment bankers working in the City.
A source confirmed "there have been a few senior names that have been excluded from the re-registration".
This information conflicts with the public line put forward by Aad Jacobs, chairman of ING, that all Barings directors are working for the new Dutch owners. The SFA is understood to be refusing to re-register any directors believed to be involved in the Barings collapse until they are cleared by investigations.
In Singapore, the 20-strong staff of Baring Futures, were yesterday put on "indefinite paid holiday" 24 hours after being told their jobs were safe. Futures traders were muted in their response. "We have not been suspended," one said. We've been put on paid leave." He declined to elaborate on the difference.
Nick Leeson, the trader at the centre of the bank's collapse, yesterday appeared at a closed court hearing in Frankfurt where he rejected demands for his extradition to Singapore. He insisted he wants to be tried in the United Kingdom.
Mr Leeson said he did not want to go to Singapore "on any account", according to Hans-Hermann Eckert, a spokesman for the state prosecutor. Mr Eckert said the UK has yet to request extradition.
It was also revealed last night that Mr Leeson had two county court judgments against him for non-payment of debts, as well as a liability order for non-payment of the poll tax in 1990. It was Mr Leeson's failure to notify the SFA of a court judgment for £639 in 1991 that led to the regulator refusing him a trading licence in Britain. "This should have been a clear warning sign to Barings," said Christopher Sharples, chairman of the SFA.
Safety net, page 24
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