UBS has signed a deal with the UK's National Physical Laboratory for a trusted timestamping service that operates independently of GPS timing, removing susceptibility to jamming, spoofing, urban canyon effects and space weather during high frequency trading.
The service, implemented by TMX Atrium, pipes precise time (accurate to one second every 158 million years) to the city by fibre, direct from the UK’s National Physical Laboratory which maintains the UK’s atomic clocks and is responsible for the dissemination of time across the UK.
The net result is a trusted and traceable distribution service that completely eliminates reliance on GPS, says TMX, ensuring that transactions completed in microseconds can be easily certified, regardless of how many locations the trades cross.
Eric Sinclair, president, TMX Market Insights and group head of information services: “The provision of NPLTime on the TMX Atrium network enables our community to receive a highly accurate time signal that cannot be disrupted by outside interference and can be implemented using existing infrastructure. The system removes the need for time synchronisation between various locations, and will better equip our clients with the ability to comply with regulatory obligations around the world.”
UBS is the first big bank to switch over to the new clock, viewing it as a route to compliance with the MiFID II RTS 25 timing traceability requirement.
Chris McConville, global co-head of equity electronic agency trading at UBS comments: “The NPLTime solution will provide UBS infrastructure with a stable, accurate and resilient time signal whilst simplifying the MiFID II time synchronisation traceability requirements."