The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has appointed Junko Nishioka as head of research, Japan and Akito Fukunaga as chief rates strategist, Japan. Both will be part of RBS Securities Japan Limited.

 

Nishioka will take responsibility for a team of analysts in Japan spanning economics, rates strategy and analytics as well as maintaining her current role as chief Japan economist. She will report locally to Toby Taniguchi, head of markets Japan and globally to David Simmonds, global head of research and strategy.

 

Toby Taniguchi, head of markets Japan, says: “RBS’ offering in Japan continues to grow stronger and with these new appointments, we will be able to improve our research and strategy offering to our clients. Nishioka is one of the nation’s pre-eminent economists and her experience and knowledge will be invaluable. Fukunaga has a background of providing unique investment strategies, including relative value trades, quantitative analysis, and real money demand analysis which be a great asset to the bank and to our clients.”

 

Nishioka joined RBS from ABN AMRO in May 2007 as a senior economist; prior to this, she was an economist at Mitsubishi UFJ Securities and an economist at the Bank of Japan. Nishioka holds a Masters degree in econometrics from Kyoto University. She was ranked seventh in the annual Nikkei Veritas fixed income economy ranking in March 2010.

 

Fukunaga will report to Nishioka and will be responsible for the research and analysis of Japanese government bonds and other Japanese yen-denominated fixed income products. Prior to joining RBS, Fukunaga worked at Credit Suisse Securities as a fixed income strategist and at AIG Star Life as an actuary. He obtained a Master’s degree in physics from the University of Tokyo and is a fellow of the Institute of Actuaries of Japan.

 

These appointments continue the strengthening of RBS Securities Japan in recent months, which includes the March 2010 appointment of Ernfred Olsen as country executive & head of global banking & markets in Japan.