My previous posting of a week or two ago about the need for more transparency didn't evoke much response, but never mind.
However, the news this morning as I drank my first pot of tea of the day is that the Allied Irish Bank have just lost $750,000,000. It would seem that a currency trader in its foreign exchange department has been able to evade internal controls and has scarpered with the cash. I would guess that this trader had been making mistakes, or dipping his hands in the till, over a long period but yet that his financial transactions were not transparent to his bosses at AIB. This is reminiscent of the case of Nick Leeson some years ago when he brought down Barings Bank for a similar amount of money. I'm not losing any tears over the AIB because they're a large outfit (and they say that they're not in difficulty) but this matter of transparency is obviously becoming increasingly important -- both within and without corporations. Enron wouldn't have happened if there'd been transparency in the accounts (or even knowledge) of their numerous subsidiaries. I think that all financial transactions (and relevant information) of any individual or corporation involved in trading with the public should be duplicated and placed on public record. It's always the ordinary person and ordinary jobs which suffer when financial scandals occur. Keith Hudson __________________________________________________________ �Writers used to write because they had something to say; now they write in order to discover if they have something to say.� John D. Barrow _________________________________________________ Keith Hudson, Bath, England; e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] _________________________________________________
