Nomura Securities took the top slot, and a number of firms increased their positions in Institutional Investor's Best Overall Generalist Sales Force rankings. Of 17 firms ranked, Nomura Securities maintained its first place finish, while Goldman Sachs jumped two positions into second. Daiwa Securities narrowly edged out UBS for third place, while Merrill Lynch took a significant leap to fifth. Credit Suisse showed solid improvement, advancing from ninth to seventh place, and Mitsubishi UFJ Securities stepped into the top ten, moving from twelfth to ninth. The Japan Sales Team rankings are derived from the annual All-Japan Research Team survey. The sales portion of the survey also provides rankings across ten sales performance attributes.

To determine the Overall Best Generalist Sales Force, Institutional Investor surveyed Portfolio Managers, Buy-Side Analysts, Directors of Research, Chief Investment Officers and other investment management individuals at firms that manage Japanese equities. This year's survey is based on the opinions of individuals at 123 firms both in Japan and abroad. Individuals were asked to rank up to eight companies for the Best Overall Generalist Sales Force as well as for each of the ten sales performance attributes.

For more information please visit http://www.iiresearchgroup.com

Please click here to access the PDF of the rankings.