Nomura plans to add 30-35 wealth bankers across Asia offices in Dubai, Hong Kong & Singapore over next two years: Report

Nomura Holdings plan to hire around 30 to 35 wealth management bankers over the next two years for its Asia offices across financial hubs such as Hong Kong and Singapore, Reuters reported on August 30.

The move is a “huge push” towards boosting Nomura's wealth assets outside of its home base of Japan. The aim is to reach $35 billion foreign held assets by next year.

Hiring Across Big Asia Hubs

Nomura plans to hire 3-4 relationship managers in Dubai by 2024-end, taking the office's headcount to 10, Ravi Raju, Nomura's head of International Wealth Management (IWM), told Reuters.

Raju added that overall Nomura plans to hire 30-35 wealth management bankers over the next two years, split equally between Hong Kong and Singapore. These offices at present employ 50 and 40 bankers respectively, he added.

This is the first time that the Japanese bank has shared hiring plans specifically for the Middle East and Asia regions.

‘Confident About $35 Billion Target’

Raju told Reuters Nomura is “confident” about achieving its $35 billion target. If done, it would be a 46 per cent increase from the bank's current $24 billion foreign wealth assets (outside of Japan).

“Current business momentum indicates that IWM doesn't see any impediment to achieve its medium-term plan,” Raju said.

Nomura and other lenders are trying to push into wealth management — a sector that poses strong income gains. It accounted for roughly half of Nomura's pretax income in the past financial year and is seen as a “more stable business” compared to trading, the report noted.

Nomura however is facing tough competition from bigger players in the wealth management space in Dubai — where it was a latecomer in 2023, Hong Kong and Singapore.

“The whole region has seen tremendous amount of growth... it (Dubai) has been the biggest area of growth in any international centres out there,” Raju said, adding that the bank sees opportunity in the location and capacity to tap talent.

Nomura's IWM business generated $14 billion in net new money from clients and opened around 2,000 new accounts over the last three years, Raju added.

(With inputs from Reuters)