SINGAPORE'S Finance Minister, Mr Richard Hu, has indicated that a decision is imminent on whether further arrests would be made following the imprisonment of Nick Leeson in the wake of what he called the Barings "fiasco".

Mr Hu was answering a parliamentary question about whether further prosecutions would be made in the light of the Singapore inspectors' report into the affair, which made accusations against a number of Barings executives.

The two men most clearly in the firing line, because they are stationed in Singapore, are Mr James Bax, former managing director of Barings Asia Pacific, and Mr Simon Jones, former chief operating officer of Barings South Asia. Both men remain in the island state, with their passports held by the authorities.