Nomura CEO resigns as insider trading shakes up management
Source: Agencies |
July 27, 2012, Friday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
NOMURA Holdings Inc named Koji Nagai as its new CEO yesterday and said it was likely more insider trading cases would come to light in a scandal that forced Kenichi Watanabe to quit as head of Japan's top investment bank.
The management shake-up was confirmed during a news conference at the end of a dramatic day in Tokyo that also saw Watanabe's top lieutenant, Takumi Shibata, resign over leaks of insider information to clients of its securities unit in 2010. Nagai, a three-decade company veteran, took over that unit in April as part of a management reshuffle.
In an update on its own investigation into the scandal, Nomura said there was a "high possibility" more insider trading leaks would be uncovered beyond those reported to the Financial Services Agency.
The resignations of Watanabe and Shibata, Nomura's chief operating officer, and their replacement by Nagai and Atsushi Yoshikawa, the head of its United States operations, would take effect on August 1, the bank said.
The departure of the architects of Nomura's takeover of the Asian and European assets of Lehman Brothers raises questions about the future of the global expansion strategy they pursued.
Nagai said he would map out a "new global strategy", adding he had no intention of dropping the ambition of being a global investment bank centered in Asia. "We will make bold choices of what we will focus on. We will not simply stick to how we did things in the past," he said.
Nomura's shake-up comes a month after the bank cut pay for both of its top executives in response to the third insider trading scandal since Watanabe, who joined the bank in 1975, took the helm four years ago.
"When you look at their history, the number of scandals, this was the last straw," said Jim Sinegal, an analyst with Morningstar research house.
Investors reacted positively, bidding Nomura shares up nearly 6 percent ahead of its fiscal first quarter earnings, which saw the bank report a net profit of 1.89 billion yen (US$24.2 million), against a profit of 17.7 billion yen in the same period last year. At the start of a news briefing on the results, CFO Junko Nakagawa apologized for the scandal and promised to bolster internal controls.
"I can't say that there is no impact on our earnings," she said. "It is difficult at this stage to numerically estimate the possible damage. All we want to do is make efforts to regain trust."
The resignation of Watanabe, 59, had been expected by many since signs emerged that the bank's leadership was at loggerheads with Japan's financial regulators, which accused Nomura of being slow to respond to an investigation into insider trading practices that had grown rampant in the Tokyo market.
The management shake-up was confirmed during a news conference at the end of a dramatic day in Tokyo that also saw Watanabe's top lieutenant, Takumi Shibata, resign over leaks of insider information to clients of its securities unit in 2010. Nagai, a three-decade company veteran, took over that unit in April as part of a management reshuffle.
In an update on its own investigation into the scandal, Nomura said there was a "high possibility" more insider trading leaks would be uncovered beyond those reported to the Financial Services Agency.
The resignations of Watanabe and Shibata, Nomura's chief operating officer, and their replacement by Nagai and Atsushi Yoshikawa, the head of its United States operations, would take effect on August 1, the bank said.
The departure of the architects of Nomura's takeover of the Asian and European assets of Lehman Brothers raises questions about the future of the global expansion strategy they pursued.
Nagai said he would map out a "new global strategy", adding he had no intention of dropping the ambition of being a global investment bank centered in Asia. "We will make bold choices of what we will focus on. We will not simply stick to how we did things in the past," he said.
Nomura's shake-up comes a month after the bank cut pay for both of its top executives in response to the third insider trading scandal since Watanabe, who joined the bank in 1975, took the helm four years ago.
"When you look at their history, the number of scandals, this was the last straw," said Jim Sinegal, an analyst with Morningstar research house.
Investors reacted positively, bidding Nomura shares up nearly 6 percent ahead of its fiscal first quarter earnings, which saw the bank report a net profit of 1.89 billion yen (US$24.2 million), against a profit of 17.7 billion yen in the same period last year. At the start of a news briefing on the results, CFO Junko Nakagawa apologized for the scandal and promised to bolster internal controls.
"I can't say that there is no impact on our earnings," she said. "It is difficult at this stage to numerically estimate the possible damage. All we want to do is make efforts to regain trust."
The resignation of Watanabe, 59, had been expected by many since signs emerged that the bank's leadership was at loggerheads with Japan's financial regulators, which accused Nomura of being slow to respond to an investigation into insider trading practices that had grown rampant in the Tokyo market.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
