South African institutions and stockbrokers say * ocal trading is too small to suffer a Barings Bank-style collapse, reports Jacques Magliolo
The collapse of Britain’s 300-year-old Barings Bank has reverberated around the world and forced local institutions and stockbrokers to reassess their own security systems and prevention mechanisms.
The announcement that Nick Leeson, a Singapore-based Barings dealer, had exposed the bank to a Stg 27- billion (R95-billion) loss and effectively wiped out its entire asset base, caused local institutions and stockbrokers to retreat behind closed doors.
Only a few dealers or institutions would actually comment — on or off the record — as “this is too delicate a matter to discuss at present.”
Of these, one institution claimed there was no way the same thing could happen here.
Old Mutual assistant general investment manager, Rowland Chute says: “We have well-defined guidelines, with a number of functions, to monitor derivative positions.”
To take a position means to trade in a security and, if a dealer takes a position, it would refer to that dealer trading for his own account.
Chute says that since the 1991 Blank incident a surveillance department has been created to keep a careful check on all trades. “It is important to understand that this department reports to Old Mutual’s chief accountant, which is outside the investment division,” says Chute.
Also, the method of operation at Old Mutual is for a portfolio manager to give a dealer an instruction to trade, providing that dealer with a specific amount to buy or sell.
“Dealers do not take positions,” Chute stresses, adding that “even portfolio managers have specific guidelines within which to order dealers to buy and sell. In turn dealers would not accept deals which exceed a particular portfolio’s guidelines
So, guidelines seem to be in place at South Africa’s largest assurer, which last year had a turnover of over R3-trillion. The question is, when does this surveillance department actually check on trades and does the dealer know whether his order to buy or sell has exceeded that specific portfolio manager’s pre- determined guideline?
“Trades are checked at the end of the day and a dealer would question a deal which he felt was unreasonable or inappropriate,” says Chute.
Old Mutual does not have a separate derivatives market, but “derivatives are used as an integral part of overall investment strategies,” he says.
Surely, if trades are checked only at the end of a day, the portfolio manager could, with the co-operation of a dealer, defraud the company during the day? Chute asserts that Old Mutual’s participation in the derivatives market is too small to have a Barings-type influence on the company.
Brokers believe the same applies to their operations in derivatives. According to Mathison & Hollidge”s head of research, Rob Gillan: “In terms of the JSE regulations brokers are only allowed to trade in derivatives for clients, and even these are carefully monitored.”
The South African Futures Exchange (Safex) has a “margin call” every day. This means that clients have to have a R1 000 deposit and to top this up daily if the index falls.
One Cape Town-based institution sounded a warning: “Nothing is impossible. There are no amount of regulations and procedures or rules which can stop a determined crook.” However, he asserted that it was unlikely to happen in South Africa as this market was “too small and most deals do not offer profit-linked