Australia’s fastest-growing online stockbroker, OpenMarkets, today announced the successful upgrade of its back office technology to NRI Financial Solutions for Broker Dealers provided by the Nomura Research Institute (NRI), a leading global provider of system solutions and consulting services.

The transition sees OpenMarkets become the first Australian broker to use NRI’s state-of-the-art and robust back-office solution for processing equity trades giving it a clear advantage in features, scalability and automation.

NRI, Japan’s leading consulting and technology solutions provider, is one of the major affiliates of the financial powerhouse, Nomura Holdings Inc.

The move extends OpenMarkets’ track record in dealing with leading global players following the company’s recent integration with Saxo Capital Markets.

OpenMarkets transitioned to NRI Financial Solutions for Broker Dealers to advance and customize its post-trade multi-asset capabilities as part of its focus on automating processes and increasing scalability.

The safe, rapid and smooth transition to the new system involved moving the entire client base to the new ASX settlement PID 1136 after close of business on Friday, July 7th and in time for start of business on Monday, July 10th.

NRI’s work with OpenMarkets continues the company’s expansion into the Australian securities market technology space. In December 2016, NRI acquired ASX-listed technology company, ASG Group to expand their technology services presence in Australia.  Further, NRI Financial Solutions for Broker Dealers is already enabled for ISO 20022 which means a more streamlined transition for NRI clients to ASX’s impending CHESS replacement system.

OpenMarkets CEO, Andrea Marani said, “NRI is an innovative, technology-driven company able to provide OpenMarkets with greater efficiencies and integration capabilities. As OpenMarkets was seeking a more technologically advanced system, one that could efficiently integrate with our internal systems, and accommodate our expanded services (such as the recent integration with Saxo Capital Markets), partnering with NRI was a natural fit.”

“We are a technology-focused broker that builds and manages much of our own in-house technology via our partnership with Paritech. This includes our own middleware and order management systems, both of which are dependent upon seamless integration with the back-office solution which NRI was well-suited to provide. We are very excited to announce our partnership with NRI and the opportunities it represents, both locally and offshore.”

NRI’s deep technical expertise and resources, backed by a strong balance sheet (it is listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange with a market capitalization of ~AUD 12 billion), give it the scale and flexibility to swiftly respond to new opportunities.

The highly flexible cloud-based NRI Financial Solutions for Broker Dealers platform helps financial securities companies adapt to rapidly changing technological and regulatory landscapes – a crucial element for OpenMarkets as it expands its business to other international markets. 

Mr. Toru Watanabe, President, NRI Financial Technologies India said: “NRI is totally dedicated to offering the best solutions and services in Australia and around the world to support our customers as the industry relies more and more on fast-moving technology to enable speed and efficiency.

“As a new technology vendor to the Australian capital market, it was a major challenge for us to find the right client partner who could help us establish our back office system in Australia, and who were attracted enough to our technology to take the chance of being our first client in Australia for processing equities. 

“Working closely with OpenMarkets we have come to understand their need for a high level of operational efficiency in order to provide superior service to their rapidly expanding client base. We are happy that they found our system suitable for their operations process automation and integration goals. We are committed to meet their high standards and the challenge of continuous improvement in the level of automation. We are excited to partner with OpenMarkets as they expand their business in Australia and internationally.”