Banking, Featured Work, Japan - Monday, June 1, 2009 12:08 - 0 Comments

Citi bails out of Japanese retail as Morgan Stanley moves in

Euromoney, June 2009

One contender leaves, and another enters. The revolving door of foreign participation in Japanese domestic brokerage has taken a few more turns this year, with Citi selling its Nikko Cordial retail brokerage to Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, and Morgan Stanley striking a joint venture deal with Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group.

Forming a judgement on Citigroup’s enterprise is tricky. It is tempting to add it to the file marked “failed foreign attempts to penetrate Japanese retail”, alongside Merrill Lynch’s venture with Yamaichi. But the truth is we’ll never know whether Citi really could have made it work as it was still a work in progress after just two years, and the imperative to sell it was driven by problems at head office, not in Japan.

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