| Mizuho Securities Co., Ltd. | |
| Native Name: | みずほ証券株式会社 |
| Native Name Lang: | ja |
| Romanized Name: | Mizuho Shōken Kabushiki-gaisha |
| Trade Name: | Mizuho Securities |
| Industry: | Financial services |
| Services: | Securities brokerage Investment banking Securities research |
| Num Employees: | 6,994 |
| Num Employees Year: | March 2016 |
| Parent: | Mizuho Financial Group |
| Location City: | Ōtemachi, Tokyo |
| Location Country: | Japan |
is a Japanese investment banking and securities firm. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Mizuho Financial Group.
The current Mizuho Securities is established by a merger between Shinko Securities and the former Mizuho Securities. The former Shinko Securities (a former equity-method affiliate of Mizuho Financial Group) and the former Mizuho Securities (a former consolidated subsidiary of Mizuho Financial Group) merged on 7 May 2009. The effective date of the merger was postponed a couple of times due to the financial crisis.[1] The surviving entity was the former Shinko Securities, which changed its name to Mizuho Securities upon the merger. After the merger, Mizuho Financial Group holds 59.51% equity ownership of the new Mizuho Securities.[2] In 2004, the Polaris Capital Group was divested, focusing on private equity investment.[3] Mizuho Securities is involved in bond and stock trading, debt and equity financing, and advisory services for structured finance; its clients include financial institutions, public corporations, and institutional investors or firms.[4] It also issues buy and sell ratings for publicly traded stocks.[5] During the early 2000s, it was considered to be one of the "big four" firms that controlled a large portion of Japanese trading.[6] In December 2005, an employee at Mizuho Securities placed an erroneous sell order of J-COM Co., Ltd. shares on the Tokyo Stock Exchange,[7] resulting in a loss of approximately .[8]
Mizuho Securities then brought a case for its damages against the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE) as they could not cancel the order due to a fault in the TSE's computer system.[9] The president of TSE resigned in 2005.[10] Mizuho was awarded approximately .[7] Mizuho Securities operates several subsidiaries, including Mizuho Securities USA, where the CEO is Gerald Rizzieri.[11] [12]