Neptune Adds Citi, Deutsche Bank to Open Standard Bond Trading Network

Citi and Deutsche Bank have both taken a stake in the Neptune utility and join other institutions from the sell side including Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Credit Agricole, Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs, Societe Generale and UBS, as well as asset management firms such as Deutsche Asset Management, AXA IM, Henderson Global Investors, Alliance Bernstein, Aviva Investors, Pioneer Investments and Aberdeen Asset Management, which joined Neptune in July this year.

Neptune, run by Neptune Network, was launched last year as a not-for-profit utility network with the goal of establishing a hub for the exchange of pre-trade bond axes and inventories in a standardized, transparent format between the buy and sell side.

In June this year Neptune announced its first connection with an external order management system (OMS), Fidessa's Minerva, while new functionality has been added this month through the addition of the new Watch List capability to the in-house Neptune desktop, which provides the quickest route to new clients for access to the network.

"The addition of Citi and Deutsche Bank 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.