Nomura was the first foreign investment bank to open a representative office in Beijing, doing so in 1982. The milestone marked an early step in the international opening of China’s financial system.
Nomura’s move came through its securities business, Nomura Securities, which had already developed a substantial international presence. The Beijing office was a representative office rather than a modern full-service investment-banking branch, reflecting the restrictions and limited market access available to foreign financial firms at the time.
Nomura was founded in Japan in 1925 after separating from the securities division of Osaka Nomura Bank. It expanded abroad early, opening a New York office in 1927, and later built operations across Europe, Asia, and North America.
Readers sometimes confuse Nomura’s 1982 Beijing milestone with later foreign-bank expansions into China. Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, and Credit Suisse became important participants in China’s financial markets much later, but they were not the first foreign investment bank to establish a Beijing representative office.