Brokerage houses seem to break into the news only on the tails of scandal.
A case in point was the recent mass resignation of top executives of Nomura Securities Co., the country's largest brokerage house, over a scandal involving illegal trading. The money from the trades was allegedly used to pay gangsters to keep them from disrupting annual stockholders meetings, a peculiarly Japanese scam called sokaiya. Perhaps even more than banks, brokers could benefit from comprehensive financial restructuring. After the 'Big Bang,' competition will be clearly on services and profitability. Some changes are already creeping into the system.