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.”
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| 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  | 34  | 35  |
| David Gershon SuperDerivatives | Chris Corrado MSCI | Joseph Squeri Citadel | Tanuja Randery BT Global Services | John Bates Software AG |
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| Gary Scholten Principal Financial Group | David Gledhill DBS Bank | Simon Garland Kx Systems | Cristóbal Conde FinTech Innovation Lab | Jeff Parker EidoSearch |
41  | 42  | 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 |
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| Steven O’Hanlon Numerix | Sebastián Ceria Axioma | Yasuki Okai Nomura Research Institute | Niki Beattie Market Structure Partners | Mas Nakachi OpenGamma |