Brevan Howard has just hired Nomura's most senior economist in Europe

The desirability of Nomura’s now disbanded research team continues. This time, one of its most senior economists has just been hired by Brevan Howard.

Nick Matthews was head of European economic research at Nomura until he quit the bank in May. As of this month, he’s turned up at hedge fund Brevan Howard as a senior economist, according to people close to the situation.

Matthews is the latest highly-ranked member of Nomura’s London research team to depart for another firm following the shake-out of its equities team earlier this year. Nomura was the joint top predictor of the European Central Bank deposit rate, according to Bloomberg, which reported his departure in May.

He worked at Nomura since 2012, when he joined as a senior European economist from Royal Bank of Scotland. He initially took the same role at Nomura, but was promoted to head of European economic research in September 2015, but spent less than a year in the role before departing in May this year.

Matthews also spent 10 years working as a European economist at Barclays.

His departure, and subsequent rapid employment, is indicative of the turnover in Nomura’s research department currently. The closure of its European equities business has resulted in a number of highly-ranked analysts flooding the market.

Most have been eagerly snapped up by other investment banks. Jon Peace, its head of banks research, has been hired by Credit Suisse, for example. More recently, some have turned up roles within the companies they were covering.

His appointment is also a rare hire for Brevan Howard, which has been losing a number of senior portfolio managers throughout 2016 – it has 66 employees registered with the Financial Conduct Authority, down from 89 at the same point in 2015.