Economists in Europe have had to swallow their pride and admit they were wrong about the impact of Brexit on the UK. Except, Brexit hasn’t actually happened yet, so maybe they’ll be proved correct eventually. Anyway.
Nomura, meanwhile, has been cutting back on its research-focused roles in London after closing down its European equities business.
It’s therefore surprising that the Japanese bank has just hired Andrew Cates as head of European economics. He joined in January following a one-year stint at Royal Bank of Scotland, where he was chief Eurozone economist.
Cates’ move to Nomura may be the second role in as many years, but much of his career before then was spent at UBS. Cates held various roles at the Swiss bank, where he worked between 1994 and 2015, both in London and Singapore. At the time of his departure, he was senior international economist.
Cates’ recruitment comes at a time of change within Nomura’s economist team.
Cates replaces Nick Matthews, who left Nomura in August to join Brevan Howard as a senior economist. Meanwhile, Phil Rush, the former UK chief economist ad senior European economist at Nomura, left in November and has now heading up his own research firm, Heteronomics.
Not only have the ranks of equity research analysts and economists at Nomura been pared back over the past year, but investment banks more generally are taking the decision to thin their teams of strategists, economists and researchers. The number of analysts in the top investment banks fell to 5,981 last year – down from 6,282 in 2015 – according to figures from research firm Coalition cited in the FT.
Contact: pclarke@efinancialcareers.com
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