Finance

Companies

Nomura Holdings: The Lehman buyout, sixteen years later

Why the 2008 Asia-Pacific and EMEA Lehman deal still defines Nomura's global identity — and why, despite the messy retreats from US equities trading, it remains Japan's only credible global investment bank.

Companies

Mizuho Financial Group: The accident-prone megabank writing a cleaner second act

From the 1999 three-way mega-merger to the system outages and the Greenhill + Rakuten Securities trades — Japan's #3 megabank, twenty-six years in, finally feels like one company.

Companies

SMFG: Japan’s #2 megabank, the one with the most disciplined US strategy

Inside the Jefferies alliance, the ASEAN consumer-finance push (BTPN, VPBank, Mahindra), and the Sumitomo Mitsui Card/SMBC Nikko ecosystem that distinguishes SMFG from MUFG's white-shoe playbook.

Companies

MUFG: How Japan’s biggest bank turned a $9B Morgan Stanley cheque into the smartest trade of the century

Why every foreign investment bank, asset manager and corporate borrower now routes Japan business through MUFG, and what foreign capital should understand about Japan's megabank consolidation.