Citi and Deutsche Bank Join Neptune

The Neptune network provides a venue for dealers to share information with investors on the bonds that they are looking to buy and sell, making it easier for investors to execute bond transactions.

17 bond dealers are already connected to the network which provides information in real-time on over 11,500 different bond securities with over $100 billion in gross notional across 20 different denominations, including $30 billion is US liquidity. This is generated from over 17,000 pre trade real-time AXE indications in the system on a daily basis.

“The addition of Citi and Deutsche Bank, both market leaders in bonds, to the Neptune network, is an important step forward in the development of our open-access, non-discriminatory network that links bond market participants and makes the markets more efficient,” said Grant Wilson, CEO of Neptune Networks Ltd.

Citi and Deutsche Bank are both taking stakes in Neptune, and joining the Neptune Board. The two institutions will start providing their data to the network very shortly.

“Adding two market leaders such as Citi and Deutsche Bank to the already strong Neptune board, comprised of Sell-side and Buy-side, is an important step to expand the reach and scope of the Neptune pre-trade data network both locally, in EMEA, and more broadly in other key regions such as the US and Asia,” added Wilson.

Neptune is a not-for-profit technology utility that was set up in 2015 to increase and improve the quality of information available to corporate bond market participants, and thereby strengthen liquidity. The data is provided to the network using an open standard which means it is cheap for users to connect to the network, and the data is easy to integrate with order management systems.

In addition, this month Neptune released new Watch List functionality to the in-house Neptune desktop. The desktop provides the quickest route to new clients for access to the network.  The Watch List allows users to focus solely on their instruments of interest, accelerating identification and matching of sources for their required assets.

Whilst the enhancement of the desktop is an important addition, Neptune remains focused on enabling asset managers to use their preferred method of visualizing the pre-trade data – this includes in-house OMS, third-party OMS vendors or a direct FIX connection.  This flexibility is continuing to attract further membership of the network, as will new product classes and geographies when added to the pre-trade data. This can be achieved without incurring further technology costs.