Two More Banks Join Project Sentinel

Project Sentinel has announced an increase in its consortium numbers, from the original seven banks to nine. The latest two to join are Santander and Nordea.

The initiative to mutualize the cost of implementation for the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID II) in the over-the-counter front office is now moving forward with its plans to create a technology solution in collaboration with shortlisted vendors. The process started with a longlist of 40 firms, which has now been whittled down to two potential solutions. The next phase of the initiative will define interoperability standards for the Sentinel components, thereby allowing integration and interoperability with banks' existing diverse and complex technology platforms. 

Sassan Danesh, managing partner at Etrading Software, the company managing the project, says: "The growth in consortium numbers is testimony to the benefits of collaboration in mutualizing costs and lowering regulatory uncertainty through shared analysis and interpretation."

Vincent Grandjean, head of product management for fixed-income electronic trading at Santander Global Corporate Banking, says: "Since early this year, the group of institutions has been working together at a determined and fast pace on the Sentinel initiative. The journey has now reached its next important milestone with the final selection of the partners that will allow us to implement a MiFID solution with a service model in line with the main objectives of Sentinel: to deliver, in collaboration with our peers, a MiFID II-compliant and fit-for-purpose solution, achieving favorable costs through mutualization."