Nomura made a major hire from Citi to beef up in Europe

Japanese investment bank Nomura hired Wissam Farah, a managing director at Citi to lead its European sales push, according to two people familiar with the matter.

Farah was a managing director at Citi for 10 years, and was listed head of investor sales for Central and Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa, as well as head of markets and securities services for the Middle East, according to his LinkedIn profile.

Prior to joining Citi 2006, Farah was a director at Barclays, working on sales for the Middle East. Before that, Farah worked at Deutsche Bank and BNP Paribas.

Spokespeople for both banks declined to immediately comment.

Like many investment banks in Europe, Nomura has had to adjust its strategy for a low growth, low interest rate environment.

Earlier this year, the lender slashed hundreds of jobs as it shuts down parts of its European equities business, including research, equities derivatives and underwriting. It is understood that up to 600 jobs are at risk. Nomura said it planned to "rationalise certain areas" of its European and US businesses.

The bank said it would keep some of its equities division, including the parts dealing with trade execution and sales of Asian stocks to European investors.