Scotia Capital, the securities arm of The Bank Of Nova Scotia, has hired former Nomura Securities International repo trading chief Keith McCluskey to build a repo trading operation in U.S. Treasury bonds. McCluskey, who will be based in New York, will report to Frank Pinon, the firms' funding and debt-markets trading chief. Pinon was unavailable for comment. McCluskey notes that although he joined the firm in mid-July, "we're just getting going now, in terms of building desk infrastructure and trading relationships."
McCluskey had worked for more than four years as a managing director at Nomura Securities in New York, and former Nomura fixed-income officials say he was a key figure in guiding the firm's fixed-income operations through its downgrade to a short-term debt rating of A3 during the autumn of 1998. He left in a reorganization of the repo desk in December of last year. McCluskey says he has hired Bill Maloney, a former v.p. at Nomura, to trade general collateral, and that going forward, "we might look to bring a few other guys in." Both McCluskey and Maloney reported to Alex Noujaim, the Nomura fixed-income boss.