Bankers Trust Case Study - Finance Train

BankersTrustCaseStudy
Case Studies,FRM Part 1|0 comments
P&G like several other protable companies was looking at ways to hedge itself from risk. They were also
looking at methods at making small gains, where possible. In case the gains turned to be losses, since they
were oset by the small gains. They did this by using plain swaps of xed for oating rate debt or vice
versa. They also used futures, options and currency trades to hedge.
P&G decided to go into high risk complex derivatives through Bankers Trust which was known to be a top
player in risk management. P&G had discussed hedging by Bankers Trust using vanilla swaps. It entered
into two such contracts. These contracts were oating rate notes in Deutsche marks and dollars. The bets
were made on the assumption that the interest rates would fall. P&G further upped the stakes by betting
twenty to one in favor of an interest rate fall.
There was the buzz that rates would indeed increase at some point and therefore positions must be
cleared before it did happen. In 1994, Greenspan went ahead and did what the market was predicting. He
raised rates. P&G lost heavily. Its Chief Financial Ocer claimed that they had no knowledge of the
intricacies of the contract and were thus unaware of the losses that could be made. Bankers Trust on its
part had not clearly detailed the underlying risk inherent in their contracts.
P&G sued BT for $195million. BT claimed that P&G had in place its own panel of experts to do interest rates
forecasts and that they had not complained when they made handsome gains. Eventually both the parties
settled out of court for a net of $78 million. Bankers Trust also settled with Federal Paper Board Company,
Gibson Greetings, Air Products and Chemical, and Procter & Gamble for $93 million.
Bankers Trust contended that P&G could have learnt more about the complex derivatives it was channeling
funds into. P&G countered by saying BT should have made them fully cognizant of the risks that were
involved in these instruments, since P&G had given their funds in good faith. Since the returns were good
P&G had no real reason to go into the details of the contract.
A series of recordings among employees at BT were heard out, in which employees discussed how the
contracts that P&G had got into were not unlike a keg of gunpowder waiting to explode.
One of the oft quoted excerpts from those recordings (6500 of them) from Newsweeks archives reads as
follows:
Its Nov. 2, 1993, and two employees of Bankers Trust Co. are discussing a leveraged derivative deal the bank
had recently sold to Procter & Gamble Co. They would never know. They would never be able to know how
much money was taken out of that, says one employee, referring to the huge prots the bank stood to make
on the transaction. Never, no way, no way, replies her colleague. Thats the beauty of Bankers Trust.
P&G claimed that by the time it was fully in the know about how the derivative worked they were asked to
fork out $40 million as extra nancing costs. They then learnt that BT was using a proprietary model to
calculate these costs. Just as the costs the payouts were not fully clear either.
Lessons Learnt
BT suered from serious reputational risk, lost the trust of its valued clients and laid bare the process
lacunas in its system.
BT was dealing with complex derivatives and getting into them with clients who trusted them and
considered them to be the best. Instead what transpired was that BT misused this trust by not being
transparent in their dealings. If they had clearly explained to their clients all the risks and costs that may
need to be borne in the event the hedge went against them, clients would have further investigated them.
BT got over condent and seemed to have bred a culture of deceit and prots at any cost. It also seems to
have not placed adequate emphasis on communication between employees regarding client matters. The
attitude of its alright to scam the client by not keeping them fully informed seemed to be rampant within
the organization. Perhaps it was more a case of employees having to reach targets at any cost.
Unfortunately that pressure translated into the most undesirable form with BT employees not putting their
clients on top.
In the case of clients like P&G who while being nancially savvy may not have been fully aware of how the
more complex derivatives worked, BT could have spent time earlier on making them aware of the risks.
P&G went after BT with a vengeance and made several incriminating allegations against them, warning o
other valuable customers who might have done business with BT.
If BT employees and management had been more discreet in their internal communication and far more
transparent in their conversation with clients it would have done their business and reputation a world of
good.

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