Nomura Research Institute, Ltd. (NRI) was founded in 1965 as Japan's first private comprehensive think tank, and has since been engaged in corporate strategy consulting, policy recommendations, and system development and operations. Guided by its corporate philosophy of “Envision and realize new paradigms” and “Be a trusted partner for mutual growth,” NRI supports the activities of businesses and government agencies both in Japan and overseas, as well as society and daily life, through four business segments: Consulting, Financial IT Solutions, Industrial IT Solutions, and IT Platform Services. With a group workforce of over 16,000 employees, NRI operates globally across 16 countries and regions.

In this environment, interest rates have been rising across various countries, while global business expansion through mergers and acquisitions and an increasing number of overseas offices have accelerated, making it essential to improve capital efficiency and strengthen governance.

Prior to implementing Kyriba, cash balances and borrowings were collected through the consolidated accounting system and Excel, meaning it took more than half a month to understand the month-end cash balances across the entire group. As daily cash flow visibility was lacking, it was also difficult to determine the optimal working capital for each entity and to forecast cash flows.

With the implementation of Kyriba, NRI is now able to visualize approximately 95% of its consolidated cash balances (excluding time deposits, etc.) on a daily basis. In addition, a data foundation has been established to support discussions around working capital and dividends at the subsidiary level. The total dividends from group companies connected to Kyriba have doubled compared to the previous year, and the shift of treasury resources toward higher value-added activities, including short-term fund management, is also progressing.

Why NRI chose Kyriba for global cash management

NRI selected Kyriba for its ability to support centralized cash management and its extensive track record with global enterprises. During the evaluation process, various tools were compared and assessed; however, Kyriba stood out for its ability to provide visibility into both domestic and international bank accounts, as well as its support for cash flow forecasting and scenario analysis.

Kyriba’s presence in Japan was also a deciding factor. NRI valued the ability to communicate with the Japanese support center. This local support was important because operating with English-only support and limited time zone coverage would have made adoption and ongoing use more difficult.

Building a treasury platform around visibility and liquidity planning

NRI implemented Cash Management & Forecasting, Debt Position Keeping, Investment Position Keeping, Liquidity Planning, and Kyriba’s Trusted Agentic AI, TAI. The company first introduced the core modules for cash, debt, and investment position management, then added Liquidity Planning to support more advanced forecasting and scenario planning.

NRI has also implemented TAI as part of its broader effort to advance treasury analysis and improve the efficiency of work that was previously done manually.

With Kyriba, NRI now has timely access to group-wide financial information that was previously fragmented. The company has centralized cash balances, time deposits, borrowings, and other financial transactions into Kyriba, creating a common treasury platform with timely access to financial information across the group, including global subsidiaries.

Turning visibility into measurable treasury impact

With daily data available in Kyriba, NRI can calculate the required working capital for each company and use that information to support the optimization of cash balances across the group. This stronger data foundation enabled more objective discussions around dividends and capital reductions. Total dividends from group companies connected to Kyriba are expected to double compared with the previous year.

Kyriba has also helped reduce manual work. Cash flow forecasting of NRI on a standalone basis is now easier, and the company has reduced the time required to create and update monthly cash flow forecasts, a task that previously took about two days per month. The treasury team has shifted resources toward higher-value activities, particularly short-term fund management. Funds that were previously held in current accounts are now being used more actively in short-term investments, improving financial income and expenditure.

Governance has improved as well. By enabling NRI to quickly understand subsidiary account information and fund movements, Kyriba has achieved a check-and-balance effect from a fraud prevention perspective. This contributes to stronger governance as NRI continues to expand globally.

From left, Mr. Yoshiyuki Iwata, Manager and Ms. Shoko Ozawa, Expert, Finance & Treasury Department, Nomura Research Institute, Ltd.

Moving from reactive cash management to proactive liquidity planning

NRI particularly values Kyriba’s dashboard and scenario capabilities. The dashboard gives users instant access to key information, including cash balances and cash flow trends, and has received positive feedback from users for being easy to understand and allowing the situation to be grasped at a glance. Liquidity Planning enables NRI to hold forecast values for multiple scenarios and flexibly analyze cash flow outlooks while changing conditions.

Rather than waiting for subsidiaries to report cash shortfalls, NRI aims to use actual and forecast data accumulated in Kyriba to understand future cash shortage risks in advance and consider countermeasures earlier.

NRI also plans to expand Kyriba to additional group companies, building on its treasury foundation as it advances toward more proactive, data-driven liquidity management.

For NRI, Kyriba is not only a cash visibility platform. It is a foundation for global treasury transformation, helping the finance department improve fund efficiency, strengthen governance, and increase its strategic value to the business.