Joseph Schmuckler, head of Mitsubishi UFJ Securities Co.’s international business unit and chairman of Mitsubishi Securities USA, quit on Monday.
The resignation was confirmed by the firm on Monday in a statement that said the resignation was by mutual agreement.
Schmuckler was recruited to Mitsubishi UFJ in September 2007 from Nomura Securities with a mandate to build the firm’s international securities and investment banking unit (see related story). At Nomura he was chief operating officer and a member of the board of directors of Nomura Holding America Inc. As COO, he was responsible for Nomura's investment banking and institutional securities businesses in the Americas.
“We have built a strong team and consistently profitable operation across the firm’s international footprint. With the pending finalization of the Morgan Stanley JV [joint venture] in Tokyo, this is a good time for me to move on,” Schmuckler said in a statement issued by the firm on Monday.
Schmuckler was a senior executive officer of Mitsubishi Securities and the highest-ranking foreign executive in the firm.
In 2008, Mitsubishi UFJ and Morgan Stanley announced an agreement that has the Japanese bank investing $9 billion in equity in Morgan Stanley for a 21% interest. Both firms said they plan to pursue a global strategic alliance with a particular focus on corporate and investment banking.
Mitsubishi UFJ Securities is the investment banking subsidiary of Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group -- a banking giant that is the result of a series of mega-mergers over the last two decades. Some of these mergers were driven by Japan's loan crisis in the 1990s, as well as changes in banking regulations and the influx of foreign banks. Mitsubishi UFJ is one of the world's largest banks when measured by total assets and was formed through the merger of Mitsubishi Tokyo Financial Group and UFJ Holdings in 2005.
Schmuckler earned his MBA in finance at New York University and studied finance at the University of Delaware, where he also participated in the school's track and field team, running 800-meter races. After completing his studies, Schmuckler worked at Kidder Peabody, where he eventually launched and led the firm's institutional equity derivatives business, for eight years.
Schmuckler left Kidder in 1990 to join Nomura as senior vice president and start up the firm's equity derivatives business. He was later named executive vice president of Nomura's equity business in the Americas.
