Scandals are mounting at Nomura Holdings Inc., threatening to derail a turnaround plan at Japan’s biggest brokerage just as it’s beginning to bear fruit.
Chief executive officer Kentaro Okuda and other top managers agreed on Thursday to take a pay cut after the firm admitted an employee manipulated the bond market, prompting several firms to stop trading with the brokerage. Less than an hour later, a local news agency reported that a former Nomura worker was arrested on suspicion of robbery and attempted murder of elderly clients.
The drumbeat of bad news is likely to overshadow financial results on Friday, when Nomura is expected to report that profit grew from a year earlier for a third straight quarter as Okuda’s overhaul gathers steam. That would mark the longest period of expansion in nearly a decade.
“It’s about sentiment,” said Hideyasu Ban, a Bloomberg Intelligence analyst, adding the brokerage will need to allay concerns among clients about the former employee’s arrest. “Their reputation is at risk.”
The scandals reinforce Nomura’s image as a firm prone to missteps, including data leaks and a multi-billion dollar loss from the collapse of Archegos Capital Management.
Shares of Nomura opened lower in Tokyo trading on Friday, falling as much as 2.7%. The benchmark Topix index slid as much as 1.7%.
Okuda has sought to move past these setbacks since he took the top job more than four years ago. Nomura has ridden a wave of deals and trading as Japan’s stock and bond markets rebound from years of slumber. Okuda has set a goal to double pretax earnings by 2031.
Instead, the bank is in damage control mode once again after a bizarre few weeks.
The investigative arm of Japan’s Financial Services Agency reported in September that a Nomura employee placed misleading orders in the government bond futures market in 2021. The trader profited by placing large orders without intending to buy or sell all of them, in a practice called layering, the watchdog said. The FSA imposed a ¥21.8 million ($144,000) fine against the company on Thursday. The trader is no longer with the firm, people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg News.
The incident has prompted clients to take their bond trading and underwriting business elsewhere, hurting Nomura just as Japan re-emerges as a key growth area.
At least 10 institutional investors have temporarily suspended some business activities with Nomura because of the breach, according to people familiar with the matter. Additionally, other clients have taken the company off underwriting debt deals. That’s lowered Nomura’s ranking in the corporate debt market, where it dropped to fifth place in October from No. 3 the previous month, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The broker also saw its primary-dealer “special entitlements” at government debt auctions suspended for about a month.
“We take this matter very seriously,” the company said in a statement Thursday, as it apologized to clients and concerned parties. “We will continue to further enhance our compliance framework and internal controls to prevent similar incidents occurring in the future and to regain trust.”
In response, Okuda agreed to return 20% of his pay for two months, while deputy president Yutaka Nakajima and several other executives at the domestic securities unit will take similar or smaller cuts, according to a statement.
After announcing the pay cuts and fines early Thursday, things unraveled further for Nomura when Kyodo reported that a former employee was arrested on suspicion of robbery and attempted murder of two clients. The 29-year-old man worked for Nomura Securities Co. when the alleged crime took place in Hiroshima in July, Kyodo reported, citing an unidentified person involved in the investigation.
He’s suspected of drugging a customer and his spouse, stealing about ¥26 million in cash from their home and setting it on fire, according to the report. The couple in their 80s escaped safely, it said.
A spokesperson for Nomura Holdings confirmed that the person is a former employee who was dismissed for disciplinary reasons, without saying when he worked there.
“It is extremely regrettable that a former employee of ours has been arrested,” the spokesperson said.
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