NPL and Colt Partner to Provide a Critical Timing Service for MiFID II Compliance

LONDON, April 26, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

Colt's new distribution agreement with NPL will deliver one microsecond UTC traceable time for reportable trading events

Colt Technology Services today announced its partnership with the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) to deliver precise timing capabilities to financial firms utilising colocation services. It enables firms to quickly and easily comply with stringent MiFID II regulations, safe in the knowledge that the signal will not be vulnerable to mis-calibration, jamming or spoofing. The high level of granularity of the timing solution far exceeds the smallest 100 microsecond level stipulated by the RTS 25 timing regulation under MiFID II. This offering will be provided at the Equinix facilities, located in Slough and the Interxion facilities in London.

The Precision Time Protocol (PTP), based on the Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) signal sourced directly from NPL, is being integrated at the network level, offering a consistent time across multiple trading applications.

MiFID II stipulates that all trading venues and their members or participants record reportable events with timestamps traceable to UTC. It also specifies that any trading activity must be timestamped to UTC at varying levels of accuracy and granularity depending on the type of activity, the most stringent requirement being 100 microseconds to UTC.

"Regulation is one of the key challenges facing market participants. At Colt, we are committed to offering a superior user experience to our customers and evolving our offerings to better address their requirements," said Andrew Housden, VP Capital Markets, at Colt. "NPL has one of the world's most accurate time signals, providing our financial markets customers with the peace of mind that comes with a highly reliable solution."

"Financial services firms are at a crucial juncture with MiFID II. To be compliant, firms have to demonstrate timestamp traceability to UTC for all reportable events," said Dr. Leon Lobo, Strategic Business Development Manager, Time and Frequency, at NPL. "The NPLTime service delivers a resilient and traceable time signal and is perfectly placed to deliver the accuracy and precision needed in today's markets. As Colt is a major network provider to financial firms, we are thrilled to be partnering with them to distribute the service to more users."

NPL is the home of atomic time, and operates one of the world's most accurate atomic clocks, NPL CsF2, which is accurate to one second every 158 million years. NPLTime is an extension of many decades of time dissemination expertise, giving industry direct access to reliable timing straight from the source.

The solution will be live in selected London data centres in Q1 2018 and rolled out to other UK locations according to customer demand.

Alex Cloney
AprilSix Proof on behalf of NPL
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