Nomura CEO resigns in wake of insider trading scandal

Nomura CEO, Kenichi Watanabe L, and Nomura Securities president Koji Nagai bow their heads to apologise at the company's headquarters in Tokyo last month

Reeling from an insider trading scandal, Nomura Holdings yesterday announced the resignation of Kenichi Watanabe as the chief executive officer of Japan’s top brokerage.

The troubles at Nomura, which bought Lehman Brothers’ Asian and European operations in 2008, have come to light at a time when the financial industry is already facing a difficult business environment, from the eurozone debt crisis to global regulatory tightening. Similarly, in Europe, Bob Diamond resigned as Barclays’s chief executive...