Meet the new head of Nomura's London prop trading business

If you want to work in prop trading, you might want to get yourself along to Nomura. While U.S. and European banks closed their London prop desks years ago, Nomura's prop team is still going strong. And it's got a new leader in London.

Insiders say Jon Och, a former global head of rates risk and capital at Nomura has recently become head of the bank's London "principal trading desk."  As such, he's reportedly trading across multiple markets (not just rates) and may well be hiring.

Nomura declined to comment on Och's ascension. The Japanese bank started a prop trading group in Hong Kong in 2014, led by Pradeep Swamy, a former equities trader at Barclays. Swamy quit in early 2016 to found his own hedge fund, however.

Och is likely to be less flighty. A long term colleague of Steve Ashley, the head of Nomura's global markets business, he worked with Ashley in fixed income risk at RBS before joining Nomura in 2009. Ashley followed one year later.

Nomura isn't the only London bank with a prop desk. Macquarie hired a trader from BNP Paribas to set up a prop desk in June. In the event that the U.S. weakens the Volcker Rule as suggested, plenty more banks could soon have prop desks in future.

Contact: sbutcher@efinancialcareers.com

Photo credit:: Nomura Securities Co., Ltd. by MIKI Yoshihito  is licensed under CC BY 2.0.