Nomura’s fixed-income sales star in talks over future

Cactus Raazi, the global head of spread product sales at Nomura, who gained notoriety two years ago following the publication of a US Senate committee report into the financial crisis, is in talks over his future with the bank, Financial News can reveal.

Raazi joined Nomura from Goldman Sachs in July last year as global head of credit sales, in what was considered, at the time, to be a significant coup for the Japanese bank. In March, Nomura named him global head of spread product sales, following a reshuffle in the fixed-income unit, and he joined the bank’s fixed-income management committee.

However, Raazi is understood to be in discussions over his future with the bank’s global head of fixed income, Steve Ashley, according to three sources familiar with the situation. One of the sources said he was now likely to leave the bank. However, another added that there were numerous “moving parts” and that the situation is fluid. Nomura declined to comment. Raazi did not return repeated calls to his office phone number seeking comment.

Raazi was made famous in 2010, following the publication of the US Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations report “Wall Street and the Financial Crisis: Anatomy of a Financial Collapse”. The report included a number of emails sent between Goldman Sachs’s management team detailing the bank’s behaviour leading up to the financial crisis. One, sent by then-Goldman executive Tom Montag to chief executive Lloyd Blankfein on March 14, 2007, explaining how the bank had covered short positions on mortgages, was titled: “Cactus delivers”.

Later, on March 28, 2007, another email was sent to the Goldman Sachs collateralised debt obligation sales force which congratulated Raazi on helping the bank reduce its exposure to a recently constructed collateralised debt obligation called Timberwolf. The email read: “Great job Cactus Raazi trading us out of our entire Timberwolf Single-A position.” Timberwolf securities lost 80% of their value within five months of being issued and today are worthless.

In Nomura’s equities division meanwhile, the majority of the trading and sales staff have moved to Instinet, following the bank’s announcement early last month that the subsidiary agency brokerage would become the bank’s execution services arm.