The relocation of a swaps trader from Nomura Securities International to Greenwich Capital Markets has set off a bit of a sniping match between the trader and his former boss, Nomura's fixed-income chief Alex Noujaim. The trader,Becker Drane, took Noujaim to task in his letter of resignation when he left in October. Noujaim responded by calling Drane's new boss, GCM co-president Jay Levine, and reportedly criticized Drane and the letter he wrote upon his October exit.
Levine declined to discuss his conversation with Noujaim, other than to acknowledge that it occurred, but did note "it was certainly unusual." An executive at GCM, who discussed the matter with Levine, notes that, "Jay was alternately pissed off and amused to have to deal with his [Noujaim's] sour grapes." Noujaim did not return a phone call seeking comment. Nancy Prayhofer, an attorney with Nomura, cited corporate policy in declining to comment on Drane or Noujaim.
Drane, an eight-year veteran in the credit derivatives trading community, was held to be a consistently profitable trader at Nomura, despite having a challenging operating environment given Nomura's triple-B long-term credit rating. Because Nomura has a lower credit rating than its competitors, the financing costs are higher for the positions of its swaps traders, and there are sharply fewer customers who are willing to engage in trades up to 10 years in maturity. Despite these obstacles, Drane, who was hired by former bond chief Ray Knox in early 2000 from BNP Paribas, was seen as the most profitable trader on Nomura's bond floor in 2000 and most of 2001, according to two former Nomura trading executives. Drane's group, consisting of one other trader and a strategist, accounted for $20-25 million in revenues in both 2000 and 2001, says a former senior bond executive at Nomura with knowledge of Drane's production.
Several former Nomura executives, as well as individuals close to Drane, say Drane's dissatisfaction with his former employer originally stemmed from a compensation dispute in the spring. From there, it developed into a conflict over the stewardship of the fixed-income division by Noujaim. People close to Drane say that when he decided to leave Nomura in the late autumn, he took the trouble to write a long letter of resignation to Noujaim, wherein he blamed Noujaim's management for the division's alleged morale and economic woes. Moreover, he took the time and effort to show other Nomura senior managers his letter. Current and former Nomura executives who have seen a copy of the letter say it created quite a stir internally. Drane, when reached at his desk at GCM, acknowledged the existence of the letter, but declined to show BondWeek a copy.