By Anton Bridge
TOKYO (Reuters) - The head of Nomura Holdings (NYSE:NMR) on Tuesday apologised after a former employee was last month charged with multiple crimes including attempted murder and robbery, in what has become the latest public scandal for the powerhouse Japanese brokerage.
CEO Kentaro Okuda made the apology before his presentation at an investor summit, where he said the firm has room to cut costs by a further 28 billion yen ($187 million) in the short- to medium-term.
The former employee, who provided asset management advice to individual and corporate clients, was suspected of robbing a client and having caused a fire at the client's home in July, Nomura said in a release.
Okuda and other executives will take a voluntary salary cut for three months in response to the incident, Nomura said.
The incident is another blow to Nomura's reputation after it was slapped with a 21.8 million yen ($145,000) fine from the banking regulator and temporarily lost its status as a primary dealer of government bonds earlier this year over a market manipulation case involving bond trading.
The efforts laid out by Okuda mark the latest in Nomura's multi-year strategy to reduce expenses, drive up its return on equity and focus on stable, high-profit business lines that has seen it post six consecutive quarters of net profit growth to the end of September this year.
The measures come on top of Nomura's existing plan to cut 62 billion yen of costs in the short- and medium-term, which include optimising information technology across the group, offshoring certain functions and reviewing office locations.
Okuda also said Nomura was making steady progress towards its target set last May of achieving consistent return on equity of between 8% and 10%, for instance by growing its risk-light businesses, which include underwriting and advisory services.
Core to this strategy is Nomura's global wealth management business, which has increased assets under management three-fold over the past four years.
The unit offers brokerage, asset management and loan products and has developed know-how on a par with global standards that Nomura now plans to employ in its Japanese wealth management arm, Okuda said.
($1 = 150.0200 yen)