Nomura has hired former Bank of America Merrill Lynch banker Yasuhiro Fujiwara as head of equities for Asia ex-Japan, according to an announcement yesterday. Fujiwara, who will be based in Hong Kong and have the title of managing director, will also take on the role of head of equity derivatives trading for Asia-Pacific.
He joins Nomura after having being away from the industry for a bit more than a year, having left BoA Merrill in October 2011. However, he will bring more than 20 years of experience in building global markets businesses in the Asia-Pacific region, according to the announcement.
In his most recent job as co-head of global markets and head of equities for Asia-Pacific at BoA Merrill he established an equities client franchise that was ranked number one in Asia-Pacific in 2010 by Institutional Investor. He spent a total of 14 years with the US bank, initially in Japan and from December 2007 in Hong Kong.
Before joining BoA Merrill and its predecessor Merrill Lynch, Fujiwara worked at UBS in Japan and at J.P. Morgan.
The hire comes after Nomura restructured its businesses to form a global markets division in December last year. Global markets is split into Global Products, which includes rates, credit, FX, securitised products and equities, and global functions, which is made up of execution services, structuring, solutions sales, senior relationship management and research.
Prior to the restructuring, John Adair was effectively head of equities for Asia ex-Japan. Adair resigned in December and left the bank early this year. Fujiwara’s second job as head of derivatives trading for Asia-Pacific is a new role at the bank.
According to the announcement, Asia is a key pillar of the global markets business, and one of Nomura’s main priorities in the region going forward, it said, is to reinforce its competitive position in equities.
Fujiwara will work together with Norikazu Akedo, the bank’s Tokyo-based head of equities for Japan, to achieve this and to drive the next growth phase.
“We look forward to leveraging Fujiwara-san’s deep understanding of the markets business and his senior client relationships across the diverse Asia region,” the bank said.
He will have a three-way reporting line to Naoki Matsuba and Yutaka Nakajima, who are joint heads of global markets for Asia-Pacific, and to Minoru Shinohara, the CEO for Asia ex-Japan. Matsuba is also co-head of global markets.
In addition to his day-to-day job, Fujiwara will also join Nomura’s global markets leadership team and the Asia executive management committee.
