Barclays Capital has hired market veteran Hidetaka Nishida, manager in the fixed income and credit trading department at Mizuho Securities in Tokyo, in a new role as a senior trader covering single-name Japanese CDS in Tokyo. "Barclays overall has been aggressively building up in Japan and structured credit is a high-priority business for us," said Eric Slighton, head of Asia-Pacific credit derivatives in Hong Kong and to whom Nishida now reports. Officials at Mizuho confirmed Nishida's departure but declined further comment.
Over the last year Slighton has been establishing a structured credit presence in Asia (DW, 8/20/04) and is now focusing on Japan. He said Barclays is looking for a few additional traders for the Japanese market, hires likely to be completed after the bonus season early next year. Despite the competitive and persistently spread-tight Japanese credit market, he reflected, "There's always ways to make money. We now have a powerful sales force in place and the trading to support it."
