Until recently, Nomura had not been a fixed-income powerhouse, preferring to mould itself around the needs of its retail clients. With more than $800 billion in assets in its wealth management division, the bank has access to a huge pool of capital.
During the past year, it has de-emphasised its equities business and rapidly developed its fixed-income business, which is a key part of its strategy after the acquisition of the European and Asian parts of Lehman Brothers' business in 2008.
Steve Ashley was brought in from RBS in 2010 to spearhead this charge into fixed income. He has had such an impact internally that in late...