Nomura Pursues Sacked Analysts In Email Row

One of the City's biggest banks is embroiled in a row with five analysts it made redundant last month after alleging that they breached company email policies.

Sky News understands that Nomura, the Japanese group which bought the London-based operations of Lehman Brothers in 2008, is taking action against the analysts, who it alleges sent research notes they authored to personal email accounts.

Nomura is understood to be considering a range of disciplinary measures including withholding elements of the analysts' redundancy packages, according to City sources.

The Japanese bank is said to believe that three of the unnamed analysts contravened company policy before they were put 'at risk', or served notice that they were at risk of losing their jobs, the sources added.

Nomura declined to comment on Tuesday on the disciplinary proceedings or on the potential sanctions against the individuals affected.

News (Other OTC: NWSAL - news) of the dispute comes amid a jobs bloodbath in the City, with major banks axing thousands of jobs because of the industry's tough trading conditions.

Nomura is shedding roughly 500 members of its London-based workforce, a move which includes the closure of much of its equities division, reflecting the difficulty it has had competing with Wall Street and European banks since 2008.

Other institutions, including Barclays (LSE: BARC.L - news) , Credit Suisse (LSE: 0QP5.L - news) , HSBC and Royal Bank of Scotland (LSE: RBS.L - news) , are also implementing deep job cuts as regulatory compliance costs mount and many revenue-generating activities perform weakly.