Neptune boss sets sights on MiFID OTC trading

‘Project Sentinel’ is set to reduce costs for banks implementing MiFID II OTC trading rules by ‘pooling resources’ and creating a standardised data model.

A group of European regional banks have signed up to be a part of ‘Project Sentinel’, an initiative aimed at helping with the implementation of MiFID II rules on OTC trading.

Those signed up to Project Sentinel are set to benefit from a standardised, MiFID II compliant data model for the front office.

Banks will ‘pool their resources’ for analysis, interpretation and technology investments to reduce the costs of implementation for those involved.

Sassan Danesh, partner at E-trading and one of the leads on the Neptune fixed income initiative, told The Trade several banks had approached him with the idea.

Etrading Software has been engaged as project management office (PMO) to facilitate the collaboration amongst the Project Sentinel group of banks.

Danesh said: “The banks told us there’s an opportunity, especially in OTC markets, to use the regulatory drivers to implement a ‘best of breed’ technology solution.”

He added that the focus at the moment is in the OTC derivatives markets and trader workflow interactions.

“Project Sentinel takes over from where FIX leaves off, and helps firms with the implementation of MiFID II rules”, Danesh told the Trade.

Danesh explained Etrading has been working on this for approximately three months, and it has moved quickly as the banks already had regulatory budgets set aside ahead of the January 2018 deadline.

Currently, a group of banks varying between four and seven have officially signed up to be a part of the project, though their names have yet to be disclosed, with a further handful likely to sign up in the near future.

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