This February marks 30 years since my rogue trading rocked the financial system and cratered Barings, Britain’s oldest and most venerable bank.

I racked up $US1 billion in losses right under the noses of Barings’ management and compliance teams, staking vast sums of the bank’s cash in a desperate attempt to dig myself out of an ever-deepening hole. The walls came crashing down a day after my 28th birthday, with the bank declared insolvent while I fled to Singapore hoping to avoid arrest.

Bloomberg Opinion