The role at the Japanese firm is a newly-created one, and an example of how it has sought to build out its international wealth management business in recent years.

Nomura has appointed former Citi Private Bank top figure Dr Rudolf Hitsch in the newly-created role of head of North Asia for its international wealth management business. He had the same role at the private bank of Citigroup.

Working in the private banking sector for 25 years, Dr Hitsch spent more than 12 years at Citigroup, building its offshore mainland China and Taiwan private banking business and overseeing the growth of the Hong Kong business. Prior to that, he spent another 12 years at Goldman Sachs Private Wealth Management in Hong Kong, where his last assignment was to lead a China team.

Tokyo-based Nomura has hired around 50 private bankers in its IWM business over the past two-and-a-half years as it focuses on its core markets of Greater China, South and Southeast Asia, and the Middle East.

Dr Hitsch holds an MBA in finance from New York University and a bachelor of arts in Chinese from the Beijing Language and Culture University in China. He also has a doctorate in natural sciences from the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences in Austria. He is fluent in Mandarin.

Among recent developments, in December Nomura opened a branch of its Singapore-based business in the Dubai International Financial Centre. Nomura’s ex-Japan wealth management business was repositioned as International Wealth Management in September 2020.