A cross-practice Squire Patton Boggs team has advised a syndicate of 16 international banks on the formal launch of Project Neptune, the not-for-profit fixed income pre-trade data initiative in London.
Project Neptune is an information network that allows banks and investors to exchange controlled and targeted, real time axe and inventory data on investment-grade and high-yield corporate bonds. The participating banks include 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., Societe Generale, UBS and UniCredit.
Robert Bray, London partner and Corporate lead of the firm’s global fintech group, led the Squire Patton Boggs team which included corporate, commercial, regulatory, tax and competition lawyers.
“We are delighted to have supported an important cross-industry initiative in bringing Project Neptune to the market,” commented Robert Bray. “This not-for-profit network is a pure information exchange that will bring together buy-side and sell-side institutions and should provide greater transparency in the corporate bond market.”