Nomura hands British banker record $12mn pay award

Nomura has handed a British banker a record pay package for an executive officer at the Japanese group after the business he heads helped it recover from one of the most turbulent periods in its history.

Christopher Willcox, who has led Nomura’s wholesale banking division since October 2022, was paid $12mn in the year ending in March, more than triple the amount made by the bank’s chief executive Kentaro Okuda in the same period. 

The award comes after a year in which Nomura finally returned to profit growth, driven by a rebound in its wholesale business, which includes trading, investment banking and international wealth management. 

A surge in stock trading the first three months of the year, when Japanese stocks eclipsed their 1980s bubble peaks, helped Nomura increase annual profits for the first time since Okuda took over as chief executive in 2020.

Nomura reported net income of ¥166bn ($1.04bn) in its most recent financial year, up from ¥93bn in the prior period. The recovery has helped send Nomura’s share price up more than 45 per cent this year.

In Japan, companies must disclose the pay of “executive officers” who receive more than ¥100mn in remuneration. Nomura bankers who were not executive officers had in the past been paid more than the sum awarded to Willcox, according to people familiar with the matter, who declined to give details.

Nevertheless, Willcox’s pay, the bulk of which is performance based and is more than double what he was paid for his first six months in the job, puts him in the same league as some chief executives in European banking, although still trailing many top bankers in the US.

Okuda was paid ¥506mn, or $3.2mn, in the 12 months to March. A weakening of the yen in the same period has left the pay of Japanese executives smaller in dollar terms.

Willcox, 56, joined Nomura in 2021 after a career that included more than 13 years at JPMorgan, where he rose through the ranks to lead the bank’s asset management business. He also worked at Citigroup.

Before becoming head of the wholesale division, Willcox ran various divisions at Nomura, including the US operation and global financial products.

The appointment was part of Okuda’s push to revive the bank’s fortunes after a period of turmoil that included vast trading losses following the implosion of Archegos Capital, the family office run by former hedge fund manager Bill Hwang.

As well as the damage inflicted by the Archegos debacle, Okuda has also had to contend with the fallout from the banking crisis in the US last year and the collapse of Credit Suisse.

Okuda has sought to reduce the bank’s reliance on volatile trading revenues and increase those from more stable businesses such as wealth management. He is targeting cost cuts in the wholesale banking division as part of an effort to improve the bank’s return on equity.

In a filing, Nomura said that pay at the bank was “determined by taking into account the roles and responsibilities of individuals as well as domestic and international regulations and standards”.