Japan's largest investment bank, Nomura Holdings, has been one of the beneficiaries of the financial crisis. Its EMEA Chairman and CEO Sadeq Sayeed told Maria Bartiromo on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos that "the more turmoil there in the market surprisingly helps us."

Unlike his banking counterparts in the U.S., Sayeed is candidly optimistic.

Perhaps, that positive outlook lies in the fact that Nomura isn't "weighed down by a whole bunch of the legacy issues which other firms are weighed down by." Sayeed also believes that the broker "can navigate through this storm pretty well."

Nomura acquired the European and Asian operations of Lehman Brothers after the U.S. bank collapsed and by most accounts, the broker is aggressively pushing into bond and equity markets. Sayeed however, would prefer not to label those efforts as "aggressive." Instead, he characterized Nomura's efforts as "appropriate" and expanding into markets and regions where he sees opportunity.

Still, this is a broker that has its roots in Japan, an economy that after two decades is still fighting to get back on the road to recovery.

Sayeed however, doesn't think the Japanese economy "is in that much trouble."

Liza Tan contributed to this article. 

_____________________________

• The Dow 30 in Real Time
• The CNBC Stock Blog

_____________________________

Questions?  Comments? Write to