Nomura Holdings cut pay for chief executive Kenichi Watanabe and top executives by 38 per cent last year after Japan's biggest brokerage posted a profit drop, according to documents sent to shareholders.

The securities firm reduced total compensation for its top 10 executives to 899 million yen (€7.7 million) for the year ended March 31st, from 1.45 billion yen a year earlier, the documents posted on Nomura's website showed.

Mr Watanabe and chief operating officer Takumi Shibata oversaw a 58 per cent profit decline to 28.7 billion yen for the year. The firm is yet to benefit from its 2008 purchase of Lehman Brothers Holdings's Asian and European assets, with operations abroad posting four straight quarters of pretax losses in the period.

The Tokyo-based company's executive pay packages include salary, bonuses and stock, according to the document. Nomura spokeswoman Keiko Sugai declined to give a breakdown of individual pay or comment on the drop in compensation.

Shares of Nomura fell 37 per cent in the 12 months to March 31 and are down about 71 per cent since the company bought bankrupt Lehman's operations.

Goldman Sachs almost doubled compensation for chairman and chief executive Lloyd Blankfein to $19 million for 2010 even as earnings dropped 38 per cent and the stock was little changed, according to the New York-based firm's proxy statement in April.

Daiwa Securities Group Japan's second-largest brokerage, paid 14 top executives 537 million yen in the year to March 31st, according to a document posted on its website today. It paid 16 executives 880 million yen a year earlier, the company has previously said. That implies their average salary dropped to 38.4 million yen from 55 million yen.

Daiwa had a loss of 37.3 billion yen for the year ended March 31st, compared with a profit of 43.4 billion yen a year earlier.

Bloomberg