TOKYO: Nomura Holdings plans to hire more than 40 private bankers in Asia and the Middle East in two years to tap an expanding pool of rich families and entrepreneurs in the regions, its international wealth management chief told Reuters.

Enhancing wealth management is part of Nomura's goal of increasing revenue less vulnerable to market swings, as Japan's top investment bank has had occasional major financial hits in its attempts to expand globally.

"The plan for us is to grow to about 135 relationship managers in the next two years, which will help us double our business," Ravi Raju, who heads Nomura's wealth management business ex-Japan, said in an interview.

The business currently employs 91 private bankers in Singapore, Hong Kong and Dubai to serve affluent clients in Greater China, Southeast Asia and the Middle East, he said.

Nomura has repositioned the business to be part of the wholesale division to provide high net-worth individuals with a broad range of investment products and services in everything from equity to structured products - similar to what it offers to institutional clients.

The bank aims to boost assets under its international wealth management business to $35 billion from $15 billion by March 2025, following three years of business overhaul that doubled the assets under management and created 1,200 new client accounts.

Revenue totalled about $100 million in the year to March.

Asia Pacific and Middle East account for 37% of the world's 21.7 million population of high net worth individuals, or those with investable assets of $1 million or more, according to Capgemini's 2023 wealth report.

Nomura, still outside the top-20 ranks of private banks in Asia, has advantages of being "small and entrepreneurial" in its hunt for talent in the main battleground for global wealth managers, said Raju, a veteran private banker who joined Nomura in 2020.

"Many of the talent out there are looking for ability to expand their client coverage," which may be difficult at some big banks already covering many clients, he said.

Nomura's strengths in Japan and Asia will allow the bank to offer "the best value for any client who wants to look at Japan and Asia, he added. (Reporting by Makiko Yamazaki; Editing by Kim Coghill)