Neptune, the dealer axe and inventory messaging platform for corporate bonds, began to charge buy-side traders a flat annual rate of £16,000 a year from 31st March, to access real-time dealer axes and inventory. A pricing model had long been expected to appear for the buy-side, although the exact cost had been unknown until now.
The Neptune platform offers standardised real-time dissemination of information from sell-side firms to buy-side desks, allowing asset managers to more easily process information.
Charging buy-side firms for previously free services is becoming necessary under the anti-inducement rules that MiFID II has promoted, where any free services could be considered inducements to favour a provider. However, Grant Wilson, CEO of Neptune Networks, says that the driver was really the maturity of the platform and not the regulation.
Although figures for use have not been disclosed, Wilson, says of the reaction, "It's been really positive. The buy and sell-side have been continually engaged with it for a long time, and in the discussion about when this needs to be charged and what needs to be done on the platform."
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