LONDON - TWO female employees are suing Japanese bank Nomura in Britain for three million pounds after claiming they suffered sexist and racist behaviour from male colleagues, reports said on Tuesday.

Maureen Murphy, 30, and Anna Francis, 37, claim they endured sexist comments from co-workers at Japan's top securities firm, one of whom described a woman's breasts as 'honkers', the reports said. Ms Murphy alleges she was also told women belonged at 'home cleaning the floors', the Daily Telegraph said.

The women are suing the bank in the employment tribunal in London for 1.5 million pounds (S$3.45 million) each in compensation for loss of earnings and injury to feelings.

Ms Murphy, a senior analyst, and Ms Francis, a director who speaks fluent Japanese, moved to Nomura after the collapse of Lehman Brothers in September last year as part of a buyout by the Japanese bank.

But the pair claim their Japanese bosses withheld work and sacked them within weeks because they were female and non-Japanese, the Evening Standard newspaper said.

Their barrister Michael Duggan told the tribunal: 'This organisation is institutionally racist and sexist in the way it behaves.' Normura denies the allegations and says they lost their jobs as part of a fair redundancy process. -- AFP