Barclays Weighs Japan Cash Equities Return After 10 Years as Stocks Boom
Updated
Updated · The Japan Times · Jun 23
Barclays Weighs Japan Cash Equities Return After 10 Years as Stocks Boom
3 articles · Updated · The Japan Times · Jun 23
Summary
Barclays is exploring a return to Japan’s cash equities business about 10 years after exiting, with talks still at an early stage and no decision made.
Tokyo hiring has already started, including former CLSA executives Takeo Kamai and Warren Kim, signaling preparation for a possible relaunch.
The rethink follows a 2016 retreat that cut 120 equity jobs in Japan as Barclays shrank its Asia-Pacific investment bank to reduce costs.
Japan’s record-setting stock rally—fueled by governance reforms, the end of deflation and AI optimism—is drawing foreign banks back into a market strategists say is "exploding."
A comeback would expand Barclays beyond electronic trading, derivatives and prime brokerage in Japan, where it generated ¥67.1 billion in net revenue last year and would face Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley, Nomura and Daiwa.