controlling interest in the Westminster Union Bank, one of the top ten merchant banks in the City, after an unprecedented hostile takeover. Was the new venture suddenly in trouble?
Not likely. Nogami had brought in a crackerjack Japa¬nese team and dragged the bank kicking and screaming into the lucrative Eurobond business, the issuing of corpo¬rate debentures in currencies other than that of a com¬pany's home country. Eurocurrencies and Eurobonds now moved in wholesale amounts between governments, cen¬tral banks, and large multinational firms. The trading of Eurobonds was centered in London, global leader in for¬eign exchange dealing, and they represented the world's largest debt market. In addition, Nogami had aggressively stepped up Westminster Union's traditional merchant bank operations by financing foreign trade, structuring corporate finance deals, and underwriting new issues of shares and bonds. He also excelled in the new game of corporate takeovers. None of the major London merchant bankers—the Rothschilds, Schroders, Hambros, Barings— had originally been British, so maybe Kenji was merely following in the footsteps