Nomura has been fined £1.75m for “extremely serious” failings in its equity derivatives business as part of a regulatory crackdown by the UK’s FSA financial watchdog. The penalty stems from the failure by one of its former employees in Hong Kong to properly account for market volatility levels in his trading book. The mis-marking led to an internal review by the Japanese bank of its international equities derivatives arm, and resulted in a total downward adjustment of the value of trading positions – booked through London – of £16.3m.