Nomura buys Lehman Asia, "White Knight" Sought for B&B, MS sucks up to the Fed

Nomura will buy Lehman's Asia-Pacific franchise, including Japan and Australia and 3,000 staff. Nomura is Japan's top underwriter for stock offerings and also tops M&A tables in Japan.
Last year, Nomura bought Instinet Inc. (US online brokerage firm) for 1.2 billion dollars as part of its overseas expansion strategy.

In the UK, the FSA is believed to have sounded out potential "white knights" for Bradford and Bingley (source: CityAM) now of the UK's weakest banks. Parties to talks are believed to be Santander, ING and Australia National Bank. B&B made losses of £17.2m in the first half.

Also Turquoise, a new trading platform, has gone live. T allows customers to trade 1200 stocks in 13 European markets. Prepare for a price war with existing exchanges!!!

GS and MS have become retail banks today, to access the Fed's $700bn funding pool and placing them under the Fed regulatory spotlight. Get used to reduced leverage and fighting for deposits!! Hedgies and boutiques may do well?