Nomura to slice US$1 billion in massive cost cutting

Nomura Holdings intends to save up to US$1 billion in a worldwide cost cutting program centered on its wholesale division.

The second major restructuring of its loss-making overseas operations will focus on its wholesale division that includes investment banking, equities and fixed income operations. The restructuring is expected to end by March 2014 and comes on top of a US$1.2 billion cost savings attained last year.

Nomura said the cuts would target front, middle and back-office workers but offered few other details. The previous cost savings plan saw about 1,000 job losses.

Sources said Nomura was planning to eliminate hundreds of jobs, mostly in cash equities and investment banking. The largest portion of the cuts are to come from Europe, which has been hit hard by the Eurozone debt crisis.

The streamlining is the first attempt by new CEO Koji Nagai to strengthen Nomura’s troubled overseas operations, built in large part on its acquisition of the Asian and European businesses of failed Wall Street bank Lehman Brothers in 2008.