When foreign investment banks made $250 million on an erroneously priced Italian postal bond issue last year, the then chairman of Nomura’s London office, Hitoshi Tonomura, was all set to follow CSFB’s example and return Nomura’s profit – thought to have been around $50 million.
He phoned his chief trader Simon Fry to let him know. Fry protested vehemently, saying the trade was worth far more than any future relationship with the Italian government. Next came a sound of tapping on the other end of the phone as a calculator went to work.
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