Nomura Research Institute, Ltd.(NRI) has started today system service for financial institutions to support delivery/settlement operations for gentan repo transactions and gensaki transactions involving inflation-linked government bonds (hereinafter referred to as "inflation-linked government bond repo transactions").

Inflation-linked government bonds are financial products in which the principal for redemption and interest payments changes relative to the consumer price index (CPI).

Since the first issue of this inflation hedge investment product in March 2003, the product has been growing steadily in terms of both the outstanding amount and the share of the total issue amount of government bonds. Along with such increases, needs for these inflation-linked government bond repo transactions have also been growing in the government bond trading market where repo transactions account for an overwhelmingly large trading volume as compared to over-the-counter cash trade transactions.

However, transactions of inflation-linked government bonds impose substantial burdens on financial institutions handling such products. These burdens include CPI management and the calculation of the market value of inflation-linked government bonds based on a linkage coefficient.

To meet these needs, NRI has started providing system service for financial institutions to support delivery/settlement operations for inflation-linked government bond repo transactions. This service covers all processes from CPI management and the calculation of a linkage coefficient to execution recording, client reporting, position management, preparation of legal ledgers and accounting processing.

The system enables automatic connection to the Pre-Settlement Matching System of the Japan Securities Depository Center and supports the settlement of government bonds on the Bank of Japan Financial Network System (BOJ-NET). This service thus supports overall delivery/settlement operations for inflation-linked government bond repo transactions.

By providing this service, NRI enables straight through processing (STP) handling all processes concerning repo transactions of government bonds from execution recording to matching/settlement. This ASP service also enables the reduction of initial investment, maintenance costs, etc. In addition to securities firms, banks, life insurance companies and other financial institutions can use this service.

In the future, NRI plans to provide system services that support financial institutions in responding to changes in the settlement system as necessitated by the introduction of the book-entry transfer system for mutual funds in 2007 and the start of the paperless stock certificate system by 2009.