Nomura, the Japan-headquartered financial services giant, has bolstered its Asian fixed income business with a very senior hire.

Rig Karkhanis is now head of fixed income for Asia ex-Japan, based in Singapore. Karkanis joined the company in September 2010 as head of fixed income, Singapore from Millenium Partners in Singapore where he served as portfolio manager. Prior to that, he was head of rates and currencies sales and trading, Pacific Rim at Merrill Lynch. He also spent a decade at Deustche Bank in Europe and Asia.

In his new role, he reports locally to Minoru Shinohara, the chief executive for Asia ex-Japan, and regionally to Yutaka Nakajima, the head of fixed income trading for Asia-Pacific and Takashi Abiko, the head of fixed income sales, Asia-Pacific. Globally, he reports to Steve Ashley, the global head of fixed income.

He replaces Jai Rajpal, who has been appointed global head of FX, based in London. 

"Nomura has established a robust and profitable Fixed Income business in Asia ex-Japan over the past three years and the appointment signals our intent to continue the build-out of this platform," said Shinohara in a statement.

Nomura has over 27,000 staff across 30 countries and a financial services business that focuses on three key areas: retail, asset management and wholesale.