Nomura, the Japanese bank that took over large parts of Lehman Brothers after its collapse last year, has promoted Simon Halliday, the former England rugby international who joined the US bank in 2000, to run its emerging markets equity sales effort in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Simon Halliday, who played as a centre and on the wing for England's rugby union team and was in the team that finished as runners up in the 1991 World Cup, will be head of Nomura's global emerging markets equity sales effort in Emea, according to an internal memo sent to the Japanese bank's staff yesterday.