The banks involved in the Neptune Collaboration are now sending pre-trade indications to their clients across the Neptune pilot production network.  Asset managers will be connected directly to the network via a GUI, their own in-house developed OMS or an external OMS provider.  With a single connection, they will be receiving pre-trade indications from multiple banks.

Formulated by Etrading Software and a group of banks and asset managers in 2014, Neptune has continued to garner industry momentum as market participants see the benefits of collaboration within this network utility. The Project has widespread support, consisting of 42 participants, including: BANCO BILBAO VIZCAYA ARGENTARIA S.A., BNP PARIBAS, COMMERZBANK AG, CREDIT AGRICOLE CORPORATE AND INVESTMENT BANK S.A., CREDIT SUISSE INTERNATIONAL, GOLDMAN SACHS INTERNATIONAL, HSBC BANK PLC, MORGAN STANLEY & CO INTERNATIONAL PLC, RBC CAPITAL MARKETS LLC, THE ROYAL BANK OF SCOTLAND PLC, BANCO SANTANDER S.A., SOCIÉTÉ GÉNÉRALE & UBS AG LONDON BRANCH.

Neptune offers a commoditised and open standard network that allows banks and investors to exchange controlled and targeted real-time axe and inventory whilst leaving ownership and control with the data providers.  By focusing on the creation of a technology utility to exchange this information directly between market participants, Neptune enables greater transparency of trading interests across the marketplace.

With its technology partner (EPAM Systems) in place, Neptune’s Production Pilot is now operational.  Transition onto a fully hardened production environment, including connectivity to further OMSs, will continue throughout 2015.  This will extend the benefits of the network to the broader community in due course.

Grant Wilson, Partner, Etrading Software, said: “We are pleased that the implementation phase is moving along successfully and the exchange of pre-trade indications between the Neptune participants has started. This success is due to the tremendous support from banks and asset managers for the core principles of Project Neptune – to collaborate together to create an open standard, technology-based, non-profit utility that is execution venue agnostic.”