Nick Leeson, the futures trader who brought down Barings bank in 1995, weighed in on the rogue trading scandal that has rocked Société Générale, warning of a “black hole” in some markets unless risk-management systems caught up with the sophistication of trading desks.

“Unless it catches up very quickly, you have a problem. [The] Jérôme Kerviel [case] has to inject a degree of reality into all of this,” Mr Leeson told a derivatives conference in London.