Nomura Holdings Inc. (NMR) plans to add 40 fixed-income professionals in the U.S. by March, the end of its fiscal year, as it makes a renewed effort to build the business.

Currently, the group has about 170 professionals. Nomura's expansion will focus on four sectors; interest rates, corporates, foreign exchange and securitized products.

Recently Charles Spero and Jeffrey Michaels joined Nomura as co-heads of fixed income in the Americas. Spero joined from Barclays Capital, where he was responsible for the trading of all non-agency, asset-backed and commercial mortgages, securities, derivatives and indices within the securitized products business. Michaels most recently worked at Citigroup (C) as Head of Rates Trading in North America. The two have worked together before at Lehman Brothers.

Nomura has hired 28 managing directors so far this year.

While the bank is still in varying stages of the business, trading has started across the four sectors, said Spero.

Fixed-income market performance has been consistent throughout the financial crisis, and the unit has driven profits at many Wall Street firms throughout the first half of the year. The business is expected to continue to perform well.

This is the third time the Japanese bank has tried to expand its U.S. fixed-income business. Its previous attempts to gain traction in the U.S. market have been disappointing.

While it remains to be seen if the third time is the charm, executives at the bank believe it will be.

The financial crisis and demise of firms has caused a shakeup of top-tier talent across the industry, which has given Nomura a hiring advantage. The competitive landscape has dramatically changed, said Spero.

The brokerage has been beefing up the business with former Lehman Brothers professionals, with about half hailing from Lehman. Many of those hired have worked together before, and "they understand what we are trying to achieve," Spero said.

Nomura has former Lehman Brothers employees world-wide as it acquired Lehman Brothers European and Asian operations after the firm collapsed.

Nomura's global footprint will help the fixed-income business, Spero said, adding the brokerage has increased its scale of the global investment-banking business.

-Jessica Papini, Dow Jones Newswires; 212-416-2172; jessica.papini@dowjones.com