Company history

Look closely at our history and you will start to see a pattern - it's a series of firsts. Our story really begins on December 25, 1925, when the Nomura Securities Company Limited was incorporated. Initially, the company focused on the bond market.

• In 1955, Nomura became the first company in Japan to introduce a computer system - a Univac 120.
• In 1981, Nomura's American subsidiary, Nomura Securities International Inc., became the first Japanese securities company to gain membership on the New York Stock Exchange.
• In October 2008, Nomura acquired Lehman Brothers' Asia Pacific and European franchises, effectively hiring over 8,000 talented employees.
  
• Since October 2008, Nomura has added more than 1,950 new employees outside Japan, including a number of senior figures.
  
• In July 2009, Nomura achieved No.1 ranking for customer market share on the London Stock Exchange (and we were still in that position as of July 2010).
  
• In March 2010 Jesse Bhattal was appointed as COO of the Wholesale Division, becoming Nomura's first non-Japanese board member.
  

Nomura in the US

Our history in the US dates back to 1927 when Nomura became a registered member of the New York Stock Exchange. Much of our early work concentrated on providing clients with a unique view of, and access to, Asian markets. Although this is still true, today our view is global. We have over 1,700 people working across the US from all different nationalities making Nomura a truly cosmopolitan community.

At the end of 2008, Nomura bought Lehman Brothers' Asian operations, and the equities and investment banking business in EMEA. In addition, we separately hired some 250 former Lehman Brothers' fixed income employees. It was an unprecedented move in banking history. Following the global financial turmoil in 2008, we seized the opportunity to build a new service model for the region. While other banks were pre-occupied with cost cutting and defending the status quo, we were building a US presence to compete with the biggest bulge-banks on Wall Street.

It was a daring plan, which yielded immediate results. In the US, we doubled our employees in just nine months and hired some of our competitor's top executives to drive the growth of our global business. While in Europe, Nomura catapulted into a leading position on many European exchanges, surprising many.