Banker's Trust

EMPLOYEES OF Banker's Trust Company took advantage of derivatives trading to steal from such customers as multinational consumer goods firm Procter & Gamble, and greeting card company Gibson Greetings from 1991 to 1994.

The situation led to reforms in the derivatives market and, by forcing Banker's Trust to reorient its business away from derivatives trading, contributed to its takeover by Deutsche Bank. Derivatives are a family of complicated transactions used either to hedge the risk of a financial market or index, or to speculate upon it. As such, the transactions involve a high degree of risk and provide salespeople with high profits.

Banker's Trust employees did not fully explain derivatives to their customers. Bank employees concentrated primarily on the New York interest rate desk and the New ...