Nomura Holdings has reportedly decided to close its office in the Chinese province of Zhejiang by the end of the year.

The Zhejiang office is one of the Tokyo-based securities firm’s four branches in China.

The firm is scaling back its wealth management operations in mainland China after years of financial losses, reported Bloomberg citing sources.

A Tokyo-based spokeswoman for Nomura declined to comment.

The Zhejiang branch was launched in late 2021, as part of an earlier push to expand in regions with affluent Chinese clients.

The firm had identified wealth management as a key growth area in China, but the business has faced challenges due to President Xi Jinping’s “common prosperity” initiative, a slowing economy, and intense competition.

Nomura Orient International Securities, based in Shanghai, has recorded losses annually since its formation in 2019, though its loss narrowed by 30% to 128.7m yuan ($17.9m) for the year ending 31 December, marking two consecutive years of improvement.

In April, Bloomberg reported that Nomura was shifting its focus in China from wealth management to brokerage as well as asset management.

Meanwhile, in January this year, Nomura appointed Sudhir Nemali as the managing director and COO of its international wealth management division, according to an internal memo seen by Reuters.

Based in Singapore, Nemali will report to Aleem Jivraj, COO of global markets at Nomura, and Ravi Raju, head of international wealth management.