As a result of a regulatory green light, changes at the top of EMEA for the Japanese banking firm can take effect.

Nomura, the Japanese banking giant which is looking to expand wealth management services and made a major Asia hire recently – as this publication exclusively revealed – has officially appointed Jonathan Lewis as chief executive for Europe, Middle East and Africa.

Lewis’s appointment was initially announced last December; regulators have now formally approved his move, the investment bank said in a statement yesterday. Lewis has been at the bank since 2008, holding roles such as deputy chief financial officer at Nomura Holdings. Other roles included those of chief financial officer for the wholesale division and CFO for the EMEA region. From 1996 to 2008, he worked at Bear Stearns as a senior managing director in finance; prior to this, he worked at PricewaterhouseCoopers in London and New York, and trained as a chartered accountant.

As a result of the official approval of the appointment, Yasuo Kashiwagi, acting CEO for EMEA, is named as executive chairman for the EMEA region.

Back in Nomura’s Asian home region, this publication reported in January that the firm had appointed former senior Morgan Stanley wealth manager Amanda Chen as deputy head of wealth management for Asia ex-Japan; she had worked at the US firm for over a decade. She is based in Singapore in the newly created role at Nomura.

In June last year Nomura announced a series of moves to drive further growth across its wealth management business in Asia, including Japan. A new wealth management business was established within the firm’s retail division, integrating the Japan wealth management group with the Asia wealth management business. This publication understands that the bank is working to gradually develop its wealth management presence and strategy and hopes to give more details in due course.