Jai Rajpal assumes sole leadership of fixed income at Nomura

Thomas Siegmund, co-head of fixed income Asia ex-Japan at Nomura, has stepped down, leaving Jai Rajpal as the sole head of the division. Siegmund and Rajpal were appointed as co-heads in November 2008 after Nomura took over Lehman Brothers, their former employer.

Rajpal's appointment as sole head was made prior to the beginning of the fiscal year. As one source said: "It was optimal to have a centralised decision-making structure in place to drive strong local regional management in the fixed-income business."

A spokesperson from Nomura wasn't able to comment on the reasons behind Siegmund's resignation or what his future plans entail.

Rajpal has nearly two decades of fixed-income experience in Asia. He joined Lehman Brothers in 2007 after spending 14 years at Deutsche Bank, where he was global head of emerging markets foreign exchange trading. At Lehman Brothers he built the foreign exchange and commodities businesses as well as the overall fixed-income franchise in Southeast Asia. He will be relocating to Hong Kong from Singapore.

Before taking on the position as co-head of fixed income with Nomura, Siegmund was based in Tokyo where he was Lehman Brothers' head of liquid markets for Asia-Pacific.

The change in leadership structure is said to be part of a bigger reorganisation within Nomura. In January this year, it announced the hiring of 125 staff to its fixed income Asia ex-Japan business in order to increase revenue from the region by approximately 30%.