Nomura Holdings Inc.’s wholesale division chief said the global environment for deal-making is “robust,” despite a tepid start to this year, with uncertainty stemming from the impact of Trump administration policy.

“At the beginning of the year, there were very high hopes on the incoming administration talking about deregulation, creating a more business friendly environment, supply side changes,” Christopher Willcox, head of trading and investment banking at Japan’s largest brokerage, said in a Bloomberg Television interview in Singapore on Friday. “That side of the policy agenda has been slower” than what some people had expected.