About a-team Marketing Services
The knowledge platform for the financial technology industry
The knowledge platform for the financial technology industry

A-Team Insight Blogs

Perseus Acknowledges MiFID II Time Synchronisation Standards as Fair and Reasonable

Subscribe to our newsletter

Changes made to recommendations on time synchronisation in the European Securities and Markets Authority’s (ESMA) latest technical standards for MiFID II have been welcomed by Perseus, a provider of managed services including PrecisionSync time services, and recognised as being fair and reasonable. While previous ESMA recommendations suggested nanosecond clock synchronisation for electronic trading, the standards published late last month settle on 100 microseconds for electronic trading and 1 millisecond for voice trading.

Jock Percy, founder and CEO of Perseus, explains: “We were concerned that while ESMA’s initial time synchronisation standard was achievable from a technology standpoint it was commercially too aggressive as the cost of achieving the standard would be too high. We made submissions to ESMA on time synchronisation and the outcome in the latest technical standards is good, fair and reasonable.”

With MiFID II dedicated to market transparency, clock synchronisation is important to understanding what has happened in an unusual trading scenario. Percy says: “Trying to reconstruct a trading period when trading software is clocked incorrectly is very difficult. If all parties to a trade, including an exchange, are synchronised with one time source and the accuracy level is acceptable, reconstruction is easier and there should be less settlement problems and disputes.”

ESMA’s final MiFID II rules on time synchronisation will have a knock-on effect outside Europe, but they could also form the basis of the US Financial Industry Regulatory Authority’s (Finra) final decision on time synchronisation. Finra is contemplating time synchronisation within 50 microseconds for electronic trading, but could well follow ESMA’s recommendations once they have been ratified by the European Parliament. This would provide uniformity across the US and Europe, and reduce the complexity of resolving global trading challenges.

Subscribe to our newsletter

Related content

WEBINAR

Recorded Webinar: The future of market data – Harnessing cloud and AI for market data distribution and consumption

Market data is the lifeblood of trading, but as data volumes grow and real-time demands increase, traditional approaches to distribution and consumption are being pushed to their limits. Cloud technology and AI-driven solutions are rapidly transforming how financial institutions manage, process, and extract value from market data, offering greater scalability, efficiency, and intelligence. This webinar,...

BLOG

Belfast: The Rise of a Financial Markets Technology Hub

Belfast has quietly but steadily transformed into a major hub for financial markets technology, establishing itself as a competitive location for firms specialising in market data, trading infrastructure, and financial software. Once overlooked, Belfast is now home to a thriving ecosystem of companies that provide high-end financial technology to support the world’s leading financial institutions....

EVENT

TradingTech Briefing New York

Our TradingTech Briefing in New York is aimed at senior-level decision makers in trading technology, electronic execution, trading architecture and offers a day packed with insight from practitioners and from innovative suppliers happy to share their experiences in dealing with the enterprise challenges facing our marketplace.

GUIDE

AI in Capital Markets: Practical Insight for a Transforming Industry – Free Handbook

AI is no longer on the horizon – it’s embedded in the infrastructure of modern capital markets. But separating real impact from inflated promises requires a grounded, practical understanding. The AI in Capital Markets Handbook 2025 provides exactly that. Designed for data-driven professionals across the trade life-cycle, compliance, infrastructure, and strategy, this handbook goes beyond...