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That said, it is an act of self-harm for which the watching world should feel tremendously grateful. Not only a sizzling read, arriving just in time for Bank executives as they head for a fortnight to the sun loungers of Mykonos and Ibiza, but a beautifully clear explanation of the [[equity prime brokerage]] business in particular and global markets broking in general, and a coruscating indictment of the way large organisations of all kinds operate. | That said, it is an act of self-harm for which the watching world should feel tremendously grateful. Not only a sizzling read, arriving just in time for Bank executives as they head for a fortnight to the sun loungers of Mykonos and Ibiza, but a beautifully clear explanation of the [[equity prime brokerage]] business in particular and global markets broking in general, and a coruscating indictment of the way large organisations of all kinds operate. | ||
:—JC, July 2019}} | :—JC, July 2019}} | ||
===Contents=== | |||
__TOC__ | |||
===Intro=== | ===Intro=== | ||
This is a proper horror story, make no mistake: Stephen King has not a patch on this. | This is a proper horror story, make no mistake: Stephen King has not a patch on this. | ||
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After all, this broker was not alone in taking a hammering. It just took the ''worst'' hammering, and has been the most candid about how. | After all, this broker was not alone in taking a hammering. It just took the ''worst'' hammering, and has been the most candid about how. | ||
This is not an institution that was out of its depth in a market it did not understand. Most of its missteps have a curiously sociological, ''human'' cast to them. Some speak of bad management: poor organisation, unclear responsibilities, fiefdoms and [[silo]]s, under-communication of what mattered, over-communication of what did not; others speak just to ordinary mortal frailty: the thrall of [[Christian name|rank and status]], the fear of speaking up, making management reports and [[dashboard]]s accommodate the risk, rather than making the risk accommodated the models; [[buttocratic oath|backside-covering as a primary goal]], inexplicable insouciance in the face of steadily escalating risk and, when it comes to it, outright [[Mediocre you|mediocrity]] in senior personnel. | |||
The end game sums up how dire the whole sorry business was: In March, 2021, the broker gingerly ''asked'' Archegos to consider a new proposal under which it would recharacterise $1.35 billion of the $2.4 billion in [[excess margin|excess]] [[variation margin]] ''it currently held for Archegos'' as [[initial margin]]: ''asked'', that is, when it was contractually entitled to ''demand'' that, and more, on 3 days’ notice. And, while ''thinking about it'', Archegos systematically demanded CS ''disburse the entire $2.4 billion''. | The end game sums up how dire the whole sorry business was: In March, 2021, the broker gingerly ''asked'' Archegos to consider a new proposal under which it would recharacterise $1.35 billion of the $2.4 billion in [[excess margin|excess]] [[variation margin]] ''it currently held for Archegos'' as [[initial margin]]: ''asked'', that is, when it was contractually entitled to ''demand'' that, and more, on 3 days’ notice. And, while ''thinking about it'', Archegos systematically demanded CS ''disburse the entire $2.4 billion''. | ||