Nomura Sheds Cash Prime Brokerage in U.S. and Europe
Japan’s largest brokerage Nomura has reportedly decided to halt its cash prime brokerage offering in the U.S. and Europe following the deep losses caused by the Archegos collapse.
Nomura will cut the offering in the two regions, according to a «Bloomberg» report citing unnamed sources, with regulators and some clients already informed and given six months to find new service providers.
No changes will be made to Nomura’s prime brokerage business in Asia, including Japan, while it will attempt to offer some cash prime brokerage services in the U.S. and Europe via other products.
Following the collapse of Bill Hwang's family office Archegos, Nomura emerged as one of the most affected global banks with almost $3 billion in losses.
U.S. Growth Plans
The prime brokerage exit marks a setback to Nomura’s plans to expand in the U.S. where it recently hired ex-J.P. Morgan banker Christopher Wilcox as the country’s co-CEO.
The Japanese lender had pledged to add more non-Japanese directors externally and, amongst its expansion plans, hoped to boost earnings from prime brokerage.
Asia Exits
Meanwhile, Nomura’s investment banking division is also facing talent outflows in Asia.
In addition to the post-bonus exit in May of 20 investment bankers in the region, Nomura recently saw the departure of top analysts Junko Yamamura and Yoshitaka Nagao, according to a «Bloomberg» report, which prompted the firm to stop coverage on dozens of firms.
Separately, Nomura hired David Wong in Singapore as a senior coordinator for APAC technology research, according to an internal memo seen by finews.asia, joining from Instinet in New York where he led semiconductor research.
