At this year's Euromoney borrowers and investors conference, one of the bond market's most respected and outspoken heads of borrowing will be notably absent from the borrower panels and roundtables. Mark Cutis, former treasurer of the EBRD, has jumped back into the banking world, whence he came following stints at Merrill Lynch and Dresdner Bank. After six years at EBRD - he originally committed to stay for just 18 months - he now sits on the management committee of Nomura International, running its international market division.
His job is to pull together Nomura's fixed income trading operations worldwide and mould them into a single global business. "In the past these were run as boutiques," says Cutis. "But you cannot look at these operations as stand-alone businesses and expect to make money." He will initially focus on trading in JGBs, Bunds and US treasuries. Does that mean Nomura's JGB traders in Japan will report to Cutis in London? After three days on the job, Cutis is careful: "Who reports to whom will have to be worked out, but they have to report to one place."
Cutis talked to Nomura over nine months, mainly to Simon Fry, who Cutis knew from his Merrill Lynch days and Hiroshi Toda, director responsible for debt market operations in Tokyo. He had other offers but still chose Nomura, despite the scandals. "They have made tough decisions, they have cleared out the top layers of management. In the past, they did not bring the fiefdoms together. Now they know they have to."
He should help save Nomura, Japan, from the "Wimbledon effect" - being beaten in Tokyo by foreign players. Peter Lee
