As a result, Nomura successfully discontinued the use of its in-house back-office systems for retail markets and street-side settlement of capital markets in Japan.

Although Nomura’s in-house system was flexible, the cost to maintain it was increasing rapidly year-over-year because of the ongoing updates which left the securities firm with an intricate and complex back-office system. Nomura completed the implementation of NRI’s retail back-office system, THE STAR, on Jan. 4th, 2013 and its capital markets back-office system, I-STAR, on Jan. 5th, 2015. These newly implemented systems have been supporting Nomura’s operations seamlessly.

“In order to achieve a successful implementation of the new systems, we needed to conduct a thorough review of operations, involving the entire firm,” said Jun Yoshimura, Executive Officer at Nomura. “The head of each department was involved in preparing a set of required definitions documents and was provided with on-site installation training. The collaboration of the whole firm made this project possible and successful. By utilizing ASP solutions such as THE STAR and I-STAR, we were able to simplify our systems and optimize IT cost. Since the initial installation, both systems have been operating stably, and we are now planning to further accelerate our investment in schemes to reinforce sales operation.”

Both THE STAR and I-STAR are the industry’s standard solutions in Japan and ensure securities firms are fully compliant with the most updated local securities regulations.

“By utilizing our industry standard platform such as THE STAR and I-STAR, financial institutions can provide finely tuned operations and account support, knowing that it is constantly being updated to meet the perpetually changing needs of the Japanese securities market,” said Ken Ebato, Senior Managing Director at NRI. “Our team at NRI smoothly implemented both THE STAR and I-STAR within a short timeframe, and this was made possible because Nomura recognized the project not only as a system implementation but also as an operational reform.”

*1) THE STAR: THE STAR is a back-office system, also known as an accounting system for brokerage firms. The system allows real-time processing of post-execution balance updates, provides performance and surplus capacity, and offers user-friendly operability through the Web. It enables brokerage firms to open accounts, place orders, settle trades, consult information systems, conduct compliance checks, report on sales and view financial accounting.

*2) I-STAR: I-STAR provides a wide range of functionalities required for the back-office operations of the securities business, such as execution entry to settlement processes, accounting, and generation of regulatory reports. The solution also makes it possible to manage various types of trades across multiple asset classes, including equities, bonds, investment trusts, derivatives and foreign securities.