Former Nomura rates trader Mathias Berenger joins Capstone

Mathias Berenger has joined London-based Capstone Investment Advisors as a portfolio manager, returning to the market in August after leaving Nomura in February and taking a six-month break.

At Capstone he will be part of the firm’s portfolio management team and is expected to work on strategies that use interest-rate derivatives, drawing on his background in rates options and volatility trading.

Berenger spent five years at Nomura. Before that he was head of US volatility trading at Citi and led European vanilla options trading at Credit Suisse and Barclays. He has also held portfolio manager roles at hedge funds including Capula and H2O Asset Management. The UK Financial Conduct Authority listed him as a material risk taker for Nomura’s UK business from 2021 to 2023.

Nomura has seen several senior departures from its macro trading operations in 2026, including exits from its rates and foreign exchange desks. One senior former rates executive moved to Singapore-based Modular Asset Management, a firm spun out of Millennium. Nomura declined to comment on Berenger’s departure and his subsequent appointment.

Capstone, a London investment adviser, did not provide a comment on the hire. No direct comments were available from Berenger at the time of reporting.

Rates options are contracts that give the holder rights linked to movements in interest rates. Trading them typically involves pricing models, hedging positions and active management of volatility. Traders with these skills often move between investment banks and hedge funds where they manage relative-value trades and risk premia tied to rate moves.