Nomura Securities

Nomura was founded by Tokushichi Nomura, father of Nomura Securities founder Tokushichi Nomura II as a money changing business.[2] This was just before the Meiji Restoration, the move to setting up a bank was a logical extension and progression of this business as times changed. Changes included the founding of stock exchanges in Tokyo and Osaka as the country became industrialised. Key amongst these changes was the Japanese government's decision to issue foreign currency denominated public bonds to fund the Russo-Japanese war; Nomura employed English speaking staff so that they could take on this international business.

By 1906 Nomura had founded an in-house research department headed up by former Osaka newspaper journalist Kisaku Hashimoto.[3] This was responsible for publishing the Osaka Nomura Business News with trading news, stock analysis and current economic trends. Research combined with a substantial newspaper advertising campaign helped raise the profile of Nomura. By 1917, Nomura had gone public and soon after Osaka Nomura Bank (the present day Resona Bank) was set up, within this business there was a securities section to handle bond sales and underwriting.[2]

On December 25, 1925, the Nomura Securities Co., Ltd. (NSC) was established in Osaka, as a spin-off from Securities Dept. of Osaka Nomura Bank Co. (later known as Daiwa Bank and now Resona Bank). NSC initially focused on the bond market.[4][5][6] It was named after its founder Tokushichi Nomura II, the son of Tokushichi Nomura and a wealthy Japanese stockbroking tycoon. He had earlier established Osaka Nomura bank in 1918, based on the Mitsui zaibatsu model with a capital of ¥10 million.[7] Like the majority of Japanese conglomerate, or zaibatsu, its origins were in Osaka, but today Is based in Tokyo.

By 1927, Nomura had opened a New York office. NSC gained the authority to trade stock in 1938, and went public in 1961. In 1981, the company became a member of the New York Stock Exchange, followed five years later by its membership in the London Stock Exchange.[8]

On October 1, 2001 Nomura adopt a holding company structure with the establishment of Nomura Holdings, Inc. and Nomura Securities Co. became a fully owned subsidiary of Nomura Holdings.[9][10]

In February 2007 it purchased the US based broker and trading technology provider Instinet. In October 2008 Nomura acquired Lehman Brothers' business in the Asia Pacific region including Japan, Hong Kong and Australia;[11] together with Lehman Brothers investment banking and equities business in Europe[12] and the Middle East[13] and hired a number of people from Lehman's fixed-income business. In 2007, Lehman international businesses were responsible for half of the bank's total revenue.[14] The acquisition made Nomura the world's largest independent investment bank with Y20,300bn (£138bn) assets under management according to the Financial Times. According to Bloomberg, in the wake of the financial crisis, Nomura did not take any government bail-out money[15] In 2010 Nomura acquired a stake in Bank of Ireland according to publicly available data.[16]

In a bid to move the company's focus from Japan to global markets, the global headquarters for investment banking was moved out of Tokyo to London in April 2009 as part of a stated aim by Hiromi Yamaji, Nomura's chief executive of global investment banking to move the company's focus from Japan to global markets.

On July 27, 2009 the Federal Reserve Bank of New York designated Nomura a primary dealer for Federal Reserve System open market operations and U.S. Treasury securities auctions.[17][18] Tricorn Partners LLP was acquired on December 16, 2009 to further expand its investment banking business.[19] Nomura operates across 18 exchanges globally and holds a number of primary dealerships. In late May 2017, Nomura Securities paid for Venezuelan government bonds valued at $100 million, paying $30 million for the debt at a steep discount.[20] In 2017, Nomura has chosen Frankfurt am Main, Germany as its new EU hub after brexit.[21]

On 15 June 2021, a colony of small-flowered tongue-orchids were found growing in the rooftop garden of Nomura's London HQ. The species, which is native to the Mediterranean Basin and Atlantic coast of Western Europe, was thought extinct in the UK, as no sightings of the plant had been recorded since 1989 prior to the discovery of the colony.[22]