Tokyo

Japanese brokerage giant Nomura Holdings Inc. is eager to work together with a Japanese megabank in the business for individuals, Nomura Chief Executive Officer Koji Nagai has said.

“We’d be happy to collaborate (with megabanks),” Nagai said in a recent interview.

Nomura also hopes to expand cooperation with regional banks, the CEO said, revealing that the group has received a tie-up approach from a regional lender other than San-in Godo Bank, with which Nomura has announced an alliance deal.

“The customer bases of regional banks and (the country’s) three megabanks are overwhelming and attractive,” Nagai said, referring to such banks’ operations targeting individual customers.

Regional lenders can strengthen their products and know-how if they collaborate with Nomura, while the brokerage group can expand its customer base through such an initiative, Nagai said.

He suggested that a capital alliance with a regional bank would be one possible option for Nomura.

Meanwhile, the CEO denied the possibility that Nomura would form a comprehensive tie-up, including a capital alliance, with a megabank in the business for corporate customers. “If Nomura becomes an affiliate of a megabank, we won’t be able to do business with companies of other banking groups.”

Nagai is scheduled to step down as Nomura’s CEO at the end of March next year. Believing that he has made certain achievements in the group’s structural reform efforts to deal with the rapid rise of digital technology and the aging of the Japanese population, Nagai will hand over his post to Kentaro Okuda, Nomura’s co-chief operating officer.

Jiji Press