Reports of Nokta's departure rippled through the annual Marine Money finance conference in New York last night. There was no word on his destination. Attempts to reach Nokta and others at GHS were not immediately successful.

Nokta made a high-profile move to GHS last April after leaving what was then called Dahlman Rose, a New York investment bank at which Nokta was an original employee from 2004 and made his name as a young analyst.