In the corridors of Tokyo’s financial districts, they’re calling it a year to forget.
The country’s biggest brokerage took a ¥311 billion ($2.7 billion) hit after Bill Hwang’s family office blew up. One of its three giant banking groups said its chief executive officer was stepping down over systems failures. And another securities firm is being investigated for alleged market manipulation.
Into this sorry year came an iconoclast, vowing to shake up the industry with the first ever hostile takeover of a Japanese lender.