Nomura is making a sudden and disturbing pullback from commodities

In a possible indication of further FICC reversals to come across the industry, Nomura - which had been vigorously building a commodities business - has changed its mind.

Sparkspread reported yesterday that the Japanese bank has decided to close its global energy and soft commodities business, at the possible cost of hundreds of jobs.

Today, Reuters has the same story, although it's adamant that job losses will be in the 'low double digits.'

The sudden move suggests an unexpected willingness on behalf of the Japanese bank, which yesterday named a new EMEA CEO, to close entire business areas.

As we have pointed out previously, Nomura's wholesale business made a 23bn yen loss in the first nine months of this year, compared to a 140bn yen profit in the same period last year.

Headhunters say the commodities pullback is especially weird because Nomura's been building the business and interviewing heavily, even recently. In an internal memo sent last summer, it said it had a 'targeted strategy' in the area and had attained, '60 people in commodities across EMEA and Asia Pacific.' This time last year, it bought the European power and gas arm of Nexen, a Canadian oil company.

"Normally Japanese banks tend to take a long term view on things and to give them a few years to work out," says one. "This suggests otherwise. It looks like there's been a sudden change of heart."