Japanese bank Nomura Holdings has hired two senior executives from Bank of America Merrill Lynch to strengthen its Asian equities business. 

Stanley Wong joins the firm as head of North Asia equity distribution, while Ajay Gupta steps in as head of client trading for Asia ex-Japan for the equity derivatives arm. 

Wong, who assumed his new role in mid-August, was previously the head of Greater China equity distribution at BoA Merrill Lynch. Gupta, who used to be the head of equity-linked trading for the Pacific Rim division at BoA, will not be joining until the end of August. Both positions are Hong Kong-based. 

The latest appointments add to the string of transfers from BoA into the Japanese bank in 2013. Just this month, Vincent Yam and Laurent Poirot joined the equity derivatives team. They now report to Gupta. In March, Yasuhiro Fujiwara joined Nomura to lead the Asia-Pacific equity derivatives trading arm.