Nomura (NMR) To Slash Jobs In U.S. & Europe To Reduce Costs

With an aim to reduce expenses and sustain less profitable operations amid a tough backdrop, Nomura Holdings Inc. (NYSE:NMR) plans to cut jobs across the United States and Europe. This was reported by Bloomberg.

The bank intends to slash more than 100 jobs in its trading and investmentbanking businesses, per the persons familiar with the matter. The maximum reductions are likely to occur at Nomura’s European operation, which is struggling and has lost billions of dollars over the past several years.

The job cuts are the latest in the series of measures being taken by Nomura to turnaround its international operation. Earlier in 2016, the company had slashed hundreds of jobs in Europe when it shut most of its stock-trading business there. Also, last year, the bank laid off several sales and trading employees at its U.S. branch.

Notably, Nomura has been grappling with a dismal performance of its retail business in Japan. Given the weakening customer sentiments, revenues have declined in last four consecutive quarters. This along with instability in global equity and bond markets as well as weak investment banking performance led the bank to incur one of the biggest losses during December 2018 quarter.

Several other global banks like JPMorgan (NYSE:JPM) , Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC) and Deutsche Bank (NYSE:DB) are also trimming jobs across several businesses. The main purpose behind these cuts is saving costs in less profitable/non-core operations.

Shares of Nomura have lost nearly 25% over the past six months.

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Currently, Nomura carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

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