People are quitting Nomura’s London office. This may have something to do with the fact that the Japanese bank paid its bonuses in mid-May. According to headhunters, those bonuses were not especially generous.
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) Register shows that 20 people left Nomura between mid-May and mid-June. The exits included numerous analyst and associate level investment bankers, along with senior traders, equity researchers and a celebrated member of Nomura’s board.
Nomura declined to comment on the moves, but colleagues confirmed that the departures included: Patrick Edsparr – a former JPMorgan and Citadel banker who joined the board of Nomura International in January 2014, Bernard Singer – Nomura’s London-based head of emerging markets FX trading, and Paul Martin – the London-based head of loan trading. Lower down the Nomura hierarchy, investment banking associates like Gonzalo Corcóstegui and Jonas Jepp and analysts like Suma Dash also appear to have exited the Japanese bank.
Last month, Financial News reported that Harald Hendriks, head of Nomura’s autos team, and Fred Boulan, head of the telecoms team, had resigned to join Citigroup and Bank of America Merrill Lynch respectively.
Disappointing bonuses at Nomura?
One equity research headhunter said Nomura’s bonuses were disappointing. “People there haven’t been paid well for the last couple of years and I know a lot of people who were down again at Nomura this year,” he said, speaking on condition of anonymity. Other headhunters, who cover the recruitment of analysts and associates, said the exits from Nomura were unrelated to bonuses. “There’s just a lot of demand for people at the junior end,” said one recruiter. “In the current market, juniors at Nomura are able to trade up to work at bigger named U.S. banks and they’re just taking advantage of that opportunity.”
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