SMBC is the commercial banking subsidiary of the Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group, a Japanese financial giant with 264 trillion yen, or $1.8 trillion, of assets. The parent company's CEO, Toru Nakashima, hailed the growing partnership with Jefferies. "Our vision is to align SMBC Group and Jefferies in order to offer our clients the best financing and advisory solutions to meet their needs around the world," Nakashima said in a statement. "We are pleased with our progress to date, see today's expansion of our Global Strategic Alliance as a further step in achieving our goal and believe we are early in realizing our joint potential." Jefferies and SMBC began their alliance four years ago, working together on corporate and investment banking projects that could benefit from a presence in both the U.S. and Japan. Those areas, as the two firms saw it, included financing opportunities in U.S. healthcare and international M&A involving Japanese companies.