Lunchtime Links: Is it necessary to be male and Japanese to get on at Nomura?

4 November 2009

2 minute read

Lunchtime Links: Is it necessary to be male and Japanese to get on at Nomura?

It is not a happy day for Nomura's PR department, or for Nomura's recruiters: The Times has got an unfortunate story claiming 'City workers' are being 'driven out of Nomura for not being male or Japanese.'

The story revolves around two female non-Japanese people, one of whom worked as a senior analyst at Nomura and the other of whom worked in Asian equity sales. Both once worked for Lehman and appear to have been in the same department. They are alleging that they were discriminated against and that (bizarrely) male colleagues talked about their "honkers."

Nomura is denying the allegations. However, they sit uncomfortably with an article in the Wall Street Journal this summer, which claimed that female Harvard graduates joining Nomura were told how to make tea and brush their hair.

Enrico Bombieri, head of JP Morgan's investment bank in London, is following Bill Winters out the door. (Bloomberg)

John Mack for BofA CEO. (WSJ)

Vontobel has doubled size of its London equities brokerage team, wants to grow more. (Financial News)

UBS rebuilding in fixed income. (Guardian)

Hester's doing it for the "sense of accomplishment." (Guardian)

Polverino will still get his guarantee. (The Times)

Nasty French bank merger rumours. (Financial Times)

Is Barclays preparing the way for a break-up? (Financial Times)

Lloyds will pay Merrill Lynch, UBS, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Cazenove and HSBC 187m for underwriting its CoCos. (The Times)

Two thirds of quants think their supervisors don't understand what they're up to. (Finextra)

Profit is not satanic. (Alphaville)

To breed or not to breed? (Hplus)

AUTHOReFinancialCareers UK

Insider Comment

Da
Danzig
9 November 2009
Good point made on the poor quality of HR people in Japanese banks. Speaking of HR people, Nomura Woman sounds like one of them. The non-Japanese on Nomura's board are tokens.
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in
intheknow
5 November 2009
this kind of thing tends to happen in japanese banks mainly because of the apalling calibre of HR people who tend to end up in these places. Japanese banks tend to hire HR admin people NOT proper HR professionals.
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Ha
Happy Nomura Woman
5 November 2009
Absolute clap trap and rot. I do agree that Japanese companies have a tendency to promote Japanese people, however Nomura has non Japanese people on its board... which flies in the face of this 'tradition'.
With regards to the claim itself... Nomura bought Lehmans in October and by December these women were out... how in 8 weeks you can claim that a company is inherently racist and sexist in this time frame is laughable.
I personally find it disgusting that these women are claiming racism... They are using laws that are meant to protect people from discrimination to line their pockets. I do hope the judge finds in Nomura's favour and orders them to pay costs.
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Ni
Niv
5 November 2009
Its ridiculous that Nomura expect to operate in this manner, in the West. They should go back to being the small time business they were. They can't hold their own amongst the big boys.
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Da
Danzig
5 November 2009
This story does not surprise me at all. As a former Japanese bank staffer working in Toronto - the Japanese banks are the absolute worst I have seen in terms of racism and sexism. You are either one of them (Japanese) or you are not (non-Japanese). Management expected that people wait on them hand & foot. I hope the Harvard grads sue these idiots into the ground.
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