The Financial Post reports in its Tuesday edition that Bank of Montreal has hired senior bankers from Barclays PLC to expand its brokerage business in Tokyo, as Canada's third-largest lender looks to tap Japanese demand for overseas securities. A Bloomberg dispatch to the Post says that Ryuta Higuchi and Makoto Ohkawara joined BMO's Japanese securities subsidiary as directors this year. Mr. Higuchi handles sales of fixed income securities to institutional investors in currencies other than the yen. Mr. Ohkawara is responsible for establishing a foreign exchange and derivatives distribution team in Japan. BMO joins a slew of foreign lenders expanding in Japan as market transactions grow and the volume of mergers hits record highs. Citigroup plans to increase its investment-banking team by almost a third, while Goldman Sachs and UBS have made key hires. BMO is betting that Japanese investors will continue to seek additional returns overseas even as the Bank of Japan's interest-rate hikes add to the allure of domestic debt. As Japanese money gradually shifts from deposits to investments, demand for bonds denominated both in yen and foreign currencies should rise. BMO obtained a brokerage licence from Tokyo in 2022.