What's happening at Nomura?

21 November 2008

1 minute read

It seems that the worst may be coming to pass at Nomura in London. After hiring in 2,500 staff from Lehman in September, insiders say the Japanese bank is now trimming between 500 and 700 of its 3,000 people in the City.

HR staff at the bank are said to have met employee representatives earlier this week to discuss the redundancy plan. The equities business is expected to be the most severely impacted, with cuts predicted before Christmas.

Jobs are expected to go in IT and operations in 2009.

Nomura staff are said to be understandably disgruntled by the alleged developments. "Lehman bankers have been granted generous packages and generous guaranteed bonuses which have left them immune to potential layoffs," says one.

Employees are apparently all the more miffed because Nomura's chief exec recently told Bloomberg there were no plans for significant job cuts.

Jason Kennedy, managing director of search firm Kennedy Associates, says redundancies in London are inevitable: "They have got overlap with the Lehman boys. As with most other firms, they probably feel that now's a good time to clean the house."

Nomura didn't immediately return calls asking for comment.

AUTHORSarah Butcher

Global Editor

Ci
Cico
25 November 2008
Sarah,
Cn we go out for drinks?
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An
Anonym
23 November 2008
okura, thats a shameful and childish comment, besides, it lacks thought. I would exclude some of ex-Lehman staff especially the very recent intake, however a collection of the more experience staff must take responsibility and admit that their actions and poor judgements lead to the demise of their former employer. So tell me okura, will you feel honoured to be working side-by-side with someone whose competencies you doubt.
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So
Solace
22 November 2008
keep missing these LEH praises... lets be clear LEH was / has always been second tier poorly managed bank and just surfing boom leverage era... barclays / nomura made terrible mistakes as with little bit of vision they would have seen what was coming and just had to wait for hiring much better people at GS or MS which wil be firing >20% in 09...
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Bilbo Baggins
22 November 2008
The Nomura / Lehman deal could may already look like a train wreck. Lehman thrived in a bull market by aggressively using its balance sheet and being ultra aggressive in pricing. Those days are gone and without this, the Lehman guys suddenly don't look so great. There are some very smart people for sure, but there are also plenty who will simply not cut it in the new world without aggressive pricing behind them. Factor in the reality that there are some very high quality Nomura people who are understandably unhappy about the lack of parity between them and ( in some cases ) some pretty average Lehman guys on guarantees - and you have a recipe for law suits when the lay-offs kick in... This could get very messy !
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limpopo
22 November 2008
to idbgeezer...
that will happen, if no active sign of revenue generation by either ex Lehman or old Nomura by march 09
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