Replacing email workflows with real‑time document handling, faster trade assignments, and secure cloud storage has improved efficiency across asset‑management operations.
Amid Japan’s push towards greater efficiency in asset‑management operations, a leading investment firm has digitized its mortgage‑backed securities trade assignment workflow — replacing email‑based exchanges with a streamlined, cloud‑enabled process that automates documentation, approval, and tracking.
The case study involves Nissay Asset Management Corporation (NAM), a Tokyo-based investment firm managing a broad portfolio of domestic and international assets. NAM had recently completed the digitalization of its Assignment of Trade (AOT) workflow for mortgage‑backed securities trading. The initiative, announced on 12 February 2026, marks a shift away from time‑consuming manual procedures towards a cloud‑based process that consolidates documentation, execution, and status tracking into a single digital flow.
Historically, asset managers in Japan have handled AOT processes primarily through email chains and file attachments — methods that often created inefficiencies, errors, and extended turnaround times across multiple trading counterparties. However, as regulatory and investor expectations increased, NAM sought a digital solution that could reduce manual data entry, strengthen traceability, and improve turnaround time for trade confirmations. So the firm implemented an automated AOT system with the following core digital capabilities:
- Electronic generation and signing of trade assignment documents
- Simultaneous distribution of AOT notifications to multiple brokers
- Real‑time tracking of transaction status and completion
- Secure cloud storage of completed trade files for audit transparency
According to NAM’s General Manager and Head of Trading Department, Shuichi Uchida, the transition to a fully digital trade assignment workflow “has reduced administrative handling and freed trading staff to focus on planning and market analysis.” Uchida added that the automated process also helped improve operational visibility across desks managing To‑Be‑Announced mortgage‑backed securities.
The firm’s adoption of digital AOT processing occurs amid a broader trend across Japan’s investment sector, where fund managers are under pressure to modernize back‑office routines and reallocate time to activities that add value for investors. Said David Runacres, President (APAC), Broadridge Financial Solutions, which provided the enabling technology: The collaboration illustrates how “transforming the traditionally manual, email‑based AOT process into a connected digital workflow not only streamlines operations but also builds the foundation for future network value and collaboration across market participants.”
