TEN analysts and sales people from financial services provider RBS in Australia quit today, with most of them headed for rival finance house Nomura.
An RBS spokesperson confirmed that eight research analysts and two sales people from RBS's equities division had resigned on Tuesday but declined to provide further details.
The RBS spokesperson said RBS still had a team of 37 research analysts, after the loss of eight.
Nomura's Sydney office declined to confirm or deny that it had taken in the RBS defectors.
The Australiannewspaper reported on Tuesday that RBS had lost retail analyst David Cooke and his team, Richard Johnson and his team, health analyst David Stanton and his team, and building analyst Simon Thackery.
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A source familiar with the movements said "about 10" ex-RBS analysts, who were now on "gardening leave", would be joining Nomura.
Nomura is strengthening its equities research team as part of expanding its operations in Australia.
The source said there were also "issues around bonuses" at RBS.
But another sources said Nomura was expanding aggressively, had opened its chequebook and was paying above market rates.
RBS's parent company, the Royal Bank of Scotland Group, has been forced to scale back bonuses in the wake of a bailout by the British government.
The British government owns more than 80 per cent of the Royal Bank of Scotland Group.
Earlier this month, media reports said Bank of America-Merrill Lynch had poached 10 staff from RBS to boost its presence in Australian fixed income, foreign exchange and commodities.
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