Prelude

The financial world lives on a dangerous roller-coaster with major names often crashing down from dizzy heights:

•In 1995, unauthorised trading in the Singapore offices of the reputed British bank, Barings, led to a loss of over US$1.5 billion and its sale for a dollar to a Dutch financial institution

•In 1996, the Japanese firm of Sumitomo lost US$2.6 billion as a result of unauthorised trading in copper by one of their employees

•In 2000, the hedge fund, Long Term Capital Management, was rescued by a group of banks after it suffered losses of over US$ 4.5 billion

•In 2007, the French Bank, Societe Generale, announced that unauthorised market transactions cost it over US$ 5 billion

•In 2007, the UK Bank, Northern Rock, needed two hundred billion dollars of UK government support to avoid bankruptcy

•In the year to March 2008, the US Investment Bank, Bear Stearns, saw its share value crash over 90% from US$18 billion to just US$ 0.25 billion as a result of a crisis of confidence. It was bought by US bank, J P Morgan Chase, with a US$ 30 billion support package from the New York Federal Reserve.

Some may claim that the events in this novel and the earlier “One Step To Danger” are far fetched.

Others would say they show amazing foresight about what could, and perhaps will, happen in the roller coaster world of finance.

John S Gubert