Japan's Nomura cuts Australian jobs as banks trim costs

Japan's biggest brokerage firm Nomura Holdings Inc <8604.T> flagged redundancies in its Australian equities team, in an internal memo seen by Reuters.

Nomura is removing duplication from its equities business after its acquisition of the Instinet trading platform, a source familiar with the process said.

Nomura's move to slim its equities presence in Australia comes against the backdrop of wider job losses in the banking sphere. Rival Deutsche Bank has trimmed its Australian headcount to 725 from 1,000 in the last few years.

Australia's fourth biggest bank, Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd is also considering sending call center jobs overseas, after unveiling plans last year to cut 1,000 jobs.

Nomura's job losses, which have not hit its investment-banking or fixed-income divisions, come as the business combines its fixed-income and equities concerns globally.

"While there will unfortunately be some redundancies in our Australian Equities team, the overall result will be a more efficient business and operating model that is crucial to driving profitability through the product lines and within Australia," the memo said, without specifying the number of job losses.

The majority of the job losses at Deutsche's Australian business, which spans investment banking and trading, asset and wealth management, have come as the bank looks to trim office costs through taking jobs offshore, a spokeswoman said.

An ANZ spokesman said the potential for jobs to be moved overseas was a draft proposal to senior management, with no final decision as yet.

(Reporting by Jackie Range; Editing by Stephen Coates)