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Nomura has been in the news for something very un-Japanese: the multi-million dollar golden handshake it has given to one of its top executives. According to a recent report in the Financial Times, the bank gave Sadeq Sayeed, a former chief executive of the company’s European business, a generous $34m payoff after his resignation in March. The FT says this figure was likely to include accelerated stock awards and pension-related payments. Though... Read more

ECM recruitment has been picking up in Tokyo. Question is: will it stay that way? Warwick Pearmund, a consultant at Slate Consulting, says although ECM “got hammered” in the downtown, firms are now in a position where they need (and are looking) to hire again. Dan Weston, an investment banking specialist at t2 Tokyo, says he saw an uptick in ECM hiring in the first half of the year, mostly for junior... Read more

Things could be on the up for prime brokers. According to a Bloomberg report, Credit Suisse is looking to expand its prime brokerage coverage and headcount in Japan on the back of expectations that hedge fund revenue is set to rebound. But it isn’t only the Swiss who have designs on cashing in on a recovery. Kevin Naylor, team manager of the financial services division at Wall Street Associates, says... Read more

Multiple job offers are on the increase in some sectors as the market continues to pick up. And it’s less experienced bankers who are benefitting. “In most cases the multiple offers are coming to more junior candidates, as they are more affordable for the companies and it’s easier to get budget approvals for them,” says Iwona Bancerek, senior consultant at recruitment firm CDS. One area in particular where Bancerek says candidates are... Read more

Kevin Naylor, team manager of the financial services division at Wall Street Associates, says not only have the Big Four been making less of an effort to retain staff over the last six to 12 months, in some cases there has even been restructuring on a scale he says is unprecedented in recent memory. “The impact of the global financial crisis has been delayed on these firms and they have hung... Read more

Overall hiring levels in Tokyo have picked up in 2010. And while progress tends to be steady rather than spectacular, some recruiters are hopeful that the second half of 2010 could see even better demand in certain sectors. Martin Eastgate, a consultant at CDS consulting, says he is now seeing an increase in openings in real estate, despite it having been one of the slower areas in 2009 and early 2010.... Read more

Demand for quants is picking up, but hiring is still sluggish in some areas. In the front office a number of top-tier securities firms are hiring in quantitative roles, says Lionel Kaidatzis, operations director at Morgan McKinley Tokyo. “Equity and equity derivatives seem to be key areas in which firms are looking to hire quants, with some firms looking for research quants and others looking for desk quants on the equity derivative... Read more

Foreign language skills look good on any resume, but just how crucial is Japanese proficiency for expat bankers in Tokyo? The answer depends on the role. Pete Millett, director of recruitment firm People Services International, says while Japanese language skills are always an advantage in the mainstream market, they are often not required in specialised functions. Areas such as risk, quantitative analysis and structuring, as well as technology roles and hard-to-fill... Read more

ANZ is expanding its Japan operations. In a move to broaden its wealth management services, the Australian bank recently opened a Nagoya sub-branch, adding to its existing Tokyo and Osaka branches. Robert Bell, ANZ Japan’s CEO, says the move is aimed at tapping into Japan’s ageing, cash-positive population by offering wealthy Japanese alternative investment opportunities. It also means ANZ will be hiring. “We’ve almost doubled our headcount in Japan over the last... Read more

When business is bad, banks in Western countries tend to wield their axes with abandon. Not so the J-banks. Take Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group. When it announced in late March plans to close 50 branches and cut 1,000 jobs, it didn’t go pink-slip crazy, it chose to make the cuts through attrition over the next three years. For cultural and legal reasons it may have been difficult to do anything but... Read more

Bloomberg reported recently that Citigroup has started to shed staff at its investment banking unit, Nikko Citigroup. According to the report, at least 10% of Nikko Citigroup’s 1,600 staff will face the axe, with 16 positions already cut from the unit’s equity research department. Nikko Citigroup spokesperson Naomi Watanabe declined to comment on the cutbacks, but did say the company was “always looking for ways to make our organization more efficient... Read more

The wide-reaching bite of the global financial crisis has left many people in banking with glaring gaps on their CVs. And where once those gaps could spell doom for a banking and finance career, today they are far more accepted by employers. What counts is what you do during your gap, and how you explain your time-out achievements to your recruiter and potential employers. To help with that, here are a few... Read more

Japan’s second-largest brokerage, Daiwa Securities, is planning to increase new-graduate hiring by almost 40 percent in 2011. In an interview with Bloomberg, a spokesperson for Daiwa said the firm plans to hire 490 university graduates for the year starting 1 April 2011. The 2011 intake will include a number of foreign students studying in Japan. It also represents the firm’s first increase in grad hiring since 2007. But what are the chances... Read more

Like so many sectors in 2009, private banking didn’t have much of a year to write home about. This year might have better things in store. Pete Millett, director of recruitment firm People Services International, says he expects to see hiring levels increase during 2010, predominantly in the lower level private banking services offered by larger foreign and domestic retail banks. And he isn’t the only recruiter who thinks things will slowly... Read more

Bankers are used to hard work, but could overwork be driving some of them out of the industry? Overwork has always been a reason for some people in banking to look to switch to a different industry or a “less aggressive” firm, according to Kevin Naylor, team manager of the financial services division at Wall Street Associates. But in the current climate, overwork is often coupled with a sense of... Read more

Foreign financial firms fired some 4,300 staff in Japan in the 15 months through March, according to Bloomberg. But hold back your tears: the Financial Times is reporting that lots of those deemed surplus to requirements are getting handed their pink slips along with bumper severance payouts. Near the top of the list of generous axe-wielders is ING, who was offering employees 15 to 20 months’ severance pay last month in... Read more

Bank of America-Merrill Lynch is getting bullish about hiring in Asia. Jayanti Bajpai, co-head of global corporate and investment banking for the firm in Asia-Pacific, recently told the Financial Times that the bank had turned a corner and was looking forward to expanding its regional operations, while adding that sentiment among clients and potential recruits was becoming increasingly positive. Merrill has hired over 100 new employees in the region over... Read more

A job at a J-bank might no longer mean a job for life as Japan’s banks turn to western-style contracts. In a recent interview with the Financial Times, Kenichi Watanabe, Nomura’s chief executive, revealed that more than half of the firm’s 1,600 investment banking staff in Japan had agreed to contracts that would cut their basic pay and make them easier to sack, in exchange for potentially higher performance-related bonuses.... Read more

The Swiss are bucking the trend. While foreign firms like HSBC have been moving certain functions away from Japan, Credit Suisse has just launched a new private banking operation in Tokyo. The firm's new services are being provided through its banking entity, Credit Suisse Tokyo Branch, and its securities entity, Credit Suisse Securities, and are aimed at wealthy individuals, families and corporations with more than one billion yen in financial assets. The... Read more