Nomura more than doubles profit in quarter overshadowed by scandal

TOKYO (Reuters) -Japan’s Nomura Holdings (NYSE:NMR) more than doubled its quarterly profit on Friday, marking its sixth straight quarter of growth, bolstered by a strong performance at its wholesale business, even as the bank was dogged by a trading scandal.

Japan’s top brokerage and investment bank said net profit totalled 98.4 billion yen ($645 million) in July-September, compared to 35.2 billion yen the same period a year earlier.

Net profit was the highest in four years, it said. The results reflected solid performance in its wholesale business, including global markets and investing banking.

The results mark a bright spot for Nomura after being hit by the fall-out from a bond trading scandal. Japan’s banking regulator on Thursday slapped it with a 21.8 million yen ($143,000) penalty after an investigation determined a trader manipulated the price of 10-year bond government futures contracts in March 2021.

Nomura has promised to strengthen its compliance and internal controls and said “strict disciplinary action” had been taken against the trader and relevant managers.

A number of senior executives will take voluntary pay cuts of 20% for two months, it said.

Japan’s finance ministry last month said it would suspend Nomura’s primary dealer status for government bonds for a month in response to the incident.

($1 = 152.5300 yen)