If you remember Nomura’s results, you’ll remember that the Japanese bank’s fixed income currencies and commodities (FICC) trading division, which was once doing so, so well, suddenly isn’t. Fixed income revenues at the bank fell 16% year-on-year in the second quarter and the bank complained of ‘significant declines in rates, credit and FX’.
This might be why the bank is suddenly said to have made huge swathes of its London fixed income trading floor redundant. Rumour has it that 25 traders have gone across credit and that the bank’s remaining high yield traders (said to number no more than four or five by headhunters) have been let go. EMEA high yield revenues are currently at their lowest level since 2005 according to Dealogic.
Headhunters confirm that they have been receiving calls from Nomura’s departed. The bank itself declined to comment. Financial News puts the total redundancies, including research staff, at 60 people. The FCA Register shows that Nomura has reduced the total number of registered staff it has in London from 1,249 in August 2011 to 933 currently – not including today’s redundancies.
Nomura’s move is likely to cause concern at banks like Credit Suisse and Deutsche Bank, where fixed income layoffs are also expected before the year is out.
Photo credit: Roger Smith
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