Nomura dissolves US structured finance research team

Nomura Securities has laid off the three remaining members in its New York-based structured finance research division and transferred two others. Among those let go was Mark Adelson, who spent six years at the firm as its head of structured finance research, and is now a New Jersey-based independent consultant.

Before working for Nomura, Adelson spent nine and a half years at rating agency Moody’s, holding various positions including senior analyst of residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS), non-mortgage asset-backed securities (ABS) and asset-backed commercial paper.

James Manzi, formerly head of commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS) and commercial real estate collateralised debt obligations (CRE CDO) research and strategy, and Diana Berezina, formerly an analyst who focused on RMBS, CMBS and CRE CDOs, were also laid off.

Two members of the research team were transferred to the structured credit trading desk and now report to Scott Rodman, head of structured credit trading. They are Edward Santevecchi, previously an analyst covering CDOs and ABS, and Weimin Jin, previously head of quantitative research. However, it is understood that Jin has given notice and will leave the firm shortly.

The changes come on the back of large losses in Nomura’s US mortgage bond unit. Earlier this year, Donald MacKinnon, previously head of mortgage-bond origination, and Brett Marvin, previously head of ABS trading, were forced out. A Nomura spokesman declined to comment.