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.

The addition of Citi and Deutsche Bank, bond market leaders who have each taken a stake in and joined the board of Neptune, represents a massive vote of confidence in the venture.

Formulated by Etrading Software and a group of over 40 banks and asset managers in the fourth quarter of 2014, Neptune currently 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.

Citi and Deutsche join 17 bond dealers who are already connected to the network, feeding in data from over 17,000 pre trade real-time AXE indications in the system on a daily basis.

Grant Wilson, CEO of Neptune Networks says: “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."

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.

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The Project already has widespread support from leading players in the market such as BARCLAYS BANK PLC, BANCO BILBAO VIZCAYA ARGENTARIA S.A., BNP PARIBAS, COMMERZBANK AG, CRÉDIT AGRICOLE CORPORATE AND INVESTMENT BANK, CREDIT SUISSE INTERNATIONAL, GOLDMAN SACHS INTERNATIONAL, HSBC BANK PLC, ING BANK N.V, JP MORGAN, MORGAN STANLEY & CO INTERNATIONAL PLC, RBC CAPITAL MARKETS, BANCO SANTANDER S.A., SOCIÉTÉ GÉNÉRALE, UBS AG LONDON BRANCH & UNICREDIT.