Project Colin: why Goldman-led margin hub fell apart

Secretive group disbanded after dealers realised tech firms had similar plans

Dealer consortium had big plans for Colin

Nothing imbues glamour like a top-secret project with a mysterious codename, so when collateral managers at the big swap dealers started work on a new margining utility last year, it was a chance to cloak themselves, for a while, in a little intrigue.

They called it Project Colin.

It was a missed opportunity, because the sensitivity around the project is real, and the stakes are high. The aim of the hub was to control the huge new collateral flows that will result from incoming rules on margin