Nomura CEO Warns of Job Losses on Brexit, Troubled Business

by Aziz Abdel-Qader
  • A no-deal Brexit leaves banks, asset managers and trading platforms with European customers scrambling to open new EU hubs.
Nomura CEO Warns of Job Losses on Brexit, Troubled Business
Bloomberg
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Koji Nagai, the CEO of Japan’s biggest brokerage and investment bank, said the firm's over 3,000 UK staff could be at risk, in a fresh blow for the City that is grappling with job losses and transfers to other European hubs as Britain prepares to cut ties with Brussels.

Nomura Holdings could see hundreds of its bankers leave or move across continental Europe as part of its $1 billion program of cost-cutting and restructuring announced earlier in April, the lender's chief executive told the Financial Times.

Nomura CEO Nagai said current plans had been formulated in part to reflect the uncertainty after Britain's divorce from the bloc. Nomura also plans to end the status of its office in the UK capital as a global booking hub.

UK lawmakers remain deadlocked over the terms of Brexit while London has yet to secure a divorce Settlement with the EU to avoid leaving the bloc without any framework. A no-deal scenario leaves banks, asset managers and trading platforms in the City with European customers scrambling to open new EU hubs.

“It seems possible that it’s going to take a long time for the situation to normalise, so at this moment we see no point in keeping that kind of significant presence over there in London. There is no Liquidity any more so the market is dead because of the central bank’s monetary policy. The fixed-income market is dead due to the zero interest rate,” said Nagai.

Nomura said earlier it would cut $1 billion in costs from its wholesale business and shut more than 30 of its 156 domestic retail branches. As part of this plans, the company has already announced it will fire nearly 100 workers at its troubled European business and signaled that more were on the way as it aims to reduce costs at across its EMEA region by 50 percent.

Koji Nagai, the CEO of Japan’s biggest brokerage and investment bank, said the firm's over 3,000 UK staff could be at risk, in a fresh blow for the City that is grappling with job losses and transfers to other European hubs as Britain prepares to cut ties with Brussels.

Nomura Holdings could see hundreds of its bankers leave or move across continental Europe as part of its $1 billion program of cost-cutting and restructuring announced earlier in April, the lender's chief executive told the Financial Times.

Nomura CEO Nagai said current plans had been formulated in part to reflect the uncertainty after Britain's divorce from the bloc. Nomura also plans to end the status of its office in the UK capital as a global booking hub.

UK lawmakers remain deadlocked over the terms of Brexit while London has yet to secure a divorce Settlement with the EU to avoid leaving the bloc without any framework. A no-deal scenario leaves banks, asset managers and trading platforms in the City with European customers scrambling to open new EU hubs.

“It seems possible that it’s going to take a long time for the situation to normalise, so at this moment we see no point in keeping that kind of significant presence over there in London. There is no Liquidity any more so the market is dead because of the central bank’s monetary policy. The fixed-income market is dead due to the zero interest rate,” said Nagai.

Nomura said earlier it would cut $1 billion in costs from its wholesale business and shut more than 30 of its 156 domestic retail branches. As part of this plans, the company has already announced it will fire nearly 100 workers at its troubled European business and signaled that more were on the way as it aims to reduce costs at across its EMEA region by 50 percent.

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