Nomura Revamps Innovation Business in Effort to Bolster Digital Assets Offering

Nomura Holdings has announced plans to reorganise its Future Innovation Company into a newly established Digital Company, effective April 1, 2022.

The Future Innovation Company was formed in April 2019 with the aim of co-creating the best services and an ideal future together with clients, the bank says. It has focused on planning and developing digital services, supporting Nomura’s digital transformation, and exploring new business opportunities, and now Nomura says it plans to strengthen collaboration in the digital domain across group companies, including its international operations, while also bolstering initiatives in focus areas.

By establishing a new organization with a strategic mission, Nomura says it aims to drive further business development and global collaboration. It observes that digital assets such as cryptocurrencies, security tokens, and non-fungible tokens are gaining presence as a new asset class and says the fusion of innovations stemming from distributed ledger technology with traditional finance is giving rise to a new range of services. “By tapping into this, Nomura aims to expand its private markets businesses and broaden its services in focus areas including sustainability and decarbonisation,” it states, adding it will also continue to leverage advanced digital technologies centring on the Digital Company to provide clients with new investment opportunities and added value.

“This is an important next step in our digital evolution,” says Kentaro Okuda, Nomura president and group CEO. “Digital technology is a critical part of our strategic drive to expand our operations in private markets. The new Digital Company will lead deeper collaboration among internal and external stakeholders, accelerate our uptake of digital technologies, and enhance our client services.”