 |
Nomura is the global investment bank that the rest of the world forgot. The Japanese firm still declares its mission is to connect markets East and West. But ask global business heads at leading US and European banks about their Japanese rival and eyes tend to go blank, brows to furrow and lips almost to smile.
“Nomura? Well, obviously, I mean, yes… they’re big in Japan,” the global head of investment banking at one US firm tells Euromoney, before glancing quizzically at his head of Europe. “That’s right, isn’t it?”
It is easy to understand his surprise that Euromoney should even ask. Take a glance at the GlobalCapital dashboard of Dealogic league table positions for Nomura and there are many where a firm that had credible pretensions to a place in the global bulge bracket 20 years ago and that still harboured hopes of such a position 10 years ago, now regularly ranks in the mid-teens and low 20s.
In mid-May, Nomura placed 14th in the global ranking for all investment banking revenue for the year to date, up one spot from the same time last year.
