“We are still in early stages of achieving gender equity in the financial sector.”
Markets Media spoke with Janet Hung, Prime Brokerage Sales AEJ at Nomura, who won Excellence in Diversity and Inclusion at the 2023 Women in Finance Asia Awards.
Can you please tell me what is your day-to-day role?
I am part of the Nomura Prime Brokerage sales team, reaching out to global hedge funds to originate security financing and swap market access needs. At Nomura we have a strong franchise cross-sell culture thus I also work closely with global and other product teams to plug in anything across equities, credit, macro, QIS to hedge funds and capital allocators. Another hat that I carry within the firm, is chair our Asia-Ex-Japan Wholesale Diversity Working Group. Gender equity is a big objective of the team, and we lean into data – surveying employee needs, benchmark peers, with direct KPI on retention and advancement soft targets in improving firm culture and inclusiveness.
What skillsets are required for today and have they changed over the past couple of years?
With markets and regulations changing so rapidly, it is important to remain agile and always keep learning. A decade ago, it was easy to be a single product specialist but now with different markets and themes falling in and out of favour that would be risky career decision. At Nomura we offer a rotation graduate program, and career mobility. I, for example, moved from a China-centric role to broader regional coverage, and later jumping from Equity sales into Prime sales.
What progress do you think women have made in financial services? How have things changed since you started? What needs to be done to move the needle further?
The post-financial crisis rally in Asia saw a big appetite for talent which created many new opportunities for women. It also boosted the global visibility of Asian based regional offices; and that in turn helped to bring advancement opportunities (females able to share in the growing pie). This is particularly evident in the asset management – where we now see so many more female Portfolio Managers and COOs. Yet there remains a gender skew in certain roles, particularly within trading. At Nomura, we found the junior Analyst & Associate (A&A) rotation program was very helpful in breaking gender bias and giving trading team managers an opportunity to work with more junior female talent.
How does your firm support women and diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) in general?
At Nomura we find mentorship and sponsorship particularly important for boosting female representation. This year, we have received a record participation of senior leaders to participate in our AEJ Wholesale female mentorship program (two thirds of allocated mentors were MD level). In the recruitment process, we are working closely with recruiters to boost the female candidate pool, setting gender targets for each round of the process and ensure we include female interviewers. Our advancement protocol also features unconscious bias training, and we provide manager training to those who are new to working with teammates going through the maternity process as we work towards a culture of inclusivity. For working parents, we also offer Parental Transition Mentors, a Parenting Resource Library, Pre and Post Parental Leave Transition Training.
There are a plethora of awards for women in the financial sector. In your opinion, what still needs to happen before we no longer need gender-specific awards?
We are still in early stages of achieving gender equity in the financial sector. Looking forward to an industry when representation and opportunities are balanced across seniority, product and role!
