Nomura said to plan job cuts in Europe and Americas

Nomura Holdings is said to be planning job cuts in the Americas and Europe as it looks to bring down costs amid a slump in its overseas operations.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the cuts – which follow a disappointing performance at the Japanese bank’s overseas units – could happen as early as this week.

It was unclear how many jobs would be cut but a person familiar with the matter told the WSJ they were part of a broader initiative to reduce costs in the American and European operations.

In February, Nomura posted a 24% drop in third quarter net profit compared with the previous quarter, to 35.4bn yen.

Late last month, Bloomberg reported that Nomura was planning to axe about 20% of its North America workforce, with one senior manager telling the news agency the cuts could be expanded to affect as much as 30% of the region’s staff.

Nomura, which has posted a pre-tax loss for six straight quarters, bought the Asian and European businesses of failed US firm Lehman Brothers in September 2008 but subsequently scaled these back as costs and losses mounted.