< The 2014 Tech 50: Moving Out of the Lab and Into the Cloud

Have a recovering economy and rising profits relieved Japanese financial institutions of their long-standing cost-cutting pressures? Not according to Yasuki Okai, who as Tokyo-based Nomura Research Institute’s head of financial technology solutions has a clear view of the investment climate. The ¥386 billion-in-revenue ($3.8 billion) information technology systems and consulting company’s clientele includes commercial and investment banks, asset managers and insurers. “Both the buy side and sell side are under tremendous pressure to reduce costs,” observes Okai, 51, who has worked for the onetime Nomura Securities International affiliate since 1988, the year its IT solutions business launched. Managements are making hard restructuring decisions, distinguishing between core businesses to invest in and noncore activities for outsourcing. The latter moves are common “especially in middle- and back-office functions,” Okai says, and NRI is at the ready. Last September it announced Post-Trade Plus, a custody and asset-servicing package for broker-dealers looking for economical infrastructure to support expansion across Asia. NRI enhanced its capabilities this year by purchasing 51 percent of Daiko Clearing Services Corp. from Nomura Holdings for ¥1.9 billion. “Clients can focus more on their core business by outsourcing,” says Okai. “They can invest more in their core business while gaining stable middle- and back-office infrastructure through us.”

 
The 2014 Tech 50

1 Dave Cross	1	3 IAN CURCIO 2011	4 FayFoto/Boston	5 Teri Pengilley
Thomas Secunda Bloomberg	Jeffrey Sprecher Intercontinental Exchange	Catherine Bessant Bank of America Corp.	Stephen Neff Fidelity Investments	Lance Uggla Markit
6	7	8 Photographer:Charlie Simokaitis	9	10 Mark McQueen
Robert Goldstein BlackRock	David Craig Thomson Reuters	Phupinder Gill CME Group	Anna Ewing NASDAQ OMX Group	R. Martin Chavez Goldman Sachs Group
11	12	13	14	15 Christopher Elston
Deborah Hopkins Citi Ventures	Dan Mathisson Credit Suisse	Daniel Coleman KCG Holdings	Michael Spencer ICAP	Michael Bodson Depository Trust & Clearing Corp.
16	17	18 Todd Plitt	19	20
Joe Ratterman BATS Global Markets	Dominique Cerutti Euronext	Ron Levi GFI Group	Gaurav Suri D.E. Shaw Group	Charles Li Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing
21 Larry Lettera/ Camera 1	22	23	24 XT	25
Lou Eccleston S&P Capital IQ	Lee Olesky Tradeweb Markets	Richard McVey MarketAxess Holdings	Seth Merrin Liquidnet Holdings	Antoine Shagoury London Stock Exchange Group
26 Production	27 Wayne R. Martin	28	29 Thorsten Jansen	30 Adam B. Auel
Christopher Perretta State Street Corp.	Kevin Rhein Wells Fargo & Co.	Peter Carr Morgan Stanley	Hauke Stars Deutsche Börse	Robert Alexander Capital One Financial Corp.
31	32	33 Paul Elledge	34	35 Stephen Brashear
David Gershon SuperDerivatives	Chris Corrado MSCI	Joseph Squeri Citadel	Tanuja Randery BT Global Services	John Bates Software AG
36	37	38	39 Photo Credit: Kevin Irby	40
Gary Scholten Principal Financial Group	David Gledhill DBS Bank	Simon Garland Kx Systems	Cristóbal Conde FinTech Innovation Lab	Jeff Parker EidoSearch
41	42 Jeff Smith Photo	43	44	45
Kim Fournais & Lars Seier Christensen Saxo Bank	Kenneth Marlin Marlin & Associates	Tyler Kim MaplesFS	Jim McGuire Charles Schwab Corp.	Jim Minnick eVestment
46	47	48 tomohisa ichiki	49 David Poultney	50 A.E. Fletcher Photography
Steven O’Hanlon Numerix	Sebastián Ceria Axioma	Yasuki Okai Nomura Research Institute	Niki Beattie Market Structure Partners	Mas Nakachi OpenGamma