NatWest's out of town success story
It's the first week of May and in his office just a couple of blocks south of Grand Central Station in mid-town Manhattan, Howard Kurz is constantly getting to his feet. Calls are coming in from the London office as NatWest Global Financial Markets' managing director in charge of global foreign exchange is explaining his pride at being the odd one out this week.
Everyone has been studying Alan Greenspan's most recent report to congress this week, and the day before Kurz and his team had hosted a lunch for 15 prominent economists. "All of them disagreed with Ram," says Kurz, referring to Ram Bhagavatula, his chief economist. Kurz hired him last October, luring him away from Citibank, where he had spent the previous 25 years. "He was the only one in the room to say that the Fed would increase rates sooner rather than later."
Less than two months later, Ram is proved right when the Fed hikes rates by a quarter of a percentage point. A good job, too, for Global Financial Markets (GFM) has backed his call with its own capital.