Nomura continues RBS raid with Paddy Power hire

Nomura has continued its raid on Royal Bank of Scotland’s sales team, with the appointment of Paddy Power as head of mid-market rates and credit sales.

Power joined Nomura earlier this month, in the same position he held at RBS, where he worked for four years. He set up RBS’s mid-market team, which targets private banks, hedge funds and smaller institutional fund managers for business. He’s also a veteran of HSBC, where he worked for 21 years in its various incarnations from 1987 to 2001 in fixed income trading positions.

Nomura has been actively recruiting from RBS over the past couple of months, with a particular focus on the sales team. Jonathan Harding, head of EMEA local market sales at RBS, joined Nomura as head of emerging market sales, while Henry McWatters, a managing director in UK equity derivatives sales signed up to the Japanese bank in a similar role in October.

Moves among rates professionals are all too rare in the current market, with most hunkering down in their current roles in depleted teams. Bonuses are also being hammered down, by 30-40% at most U.S. banks to report so far, according to headhunters.

RBS has lost several traders and salespeople in its fixed income division over the past 12 months including Sian Hurrell, head of sales for EMEA, who was integral to building the bank’s rates business.

Nomura’s fixed income business has also been targeting RBS staff since it poached senior rates trader Steve Ashley from the Scottish bank in 2010 and installed him as head of its global fixed income business. Gary Cottle followed Ashley and joined Nomura as head of fixed income for EMEA.

Jonathan Harding, head of EMEA local markets sales at RBS, joined Nomura as head of emerging markets macro sales in October. Another senior salesman – Henry McWatters, a managing director in UK equity derivatives sales at RBS – also signed up to the Japanese bank in October in a similar role.