The Financial Conduct Authority has proposed setting up a single UK price feed for bond trades before it establishes one for equities, according to a statement on Wednesday.
(Bloomberg) — The Financial Conduct Authority has proposed setting up a single UK price feed for bond trades before it establishes one for equities, according to a statement on Wednesday.
The UK watchdog is planning to run a competitive tender process to appoint one provider of the technology for fixed income, with a tape for equities following later. The technology will collate the price, size and timing of trades across multiple trading venues in the country to produce a centralized, near real-time feed.
“The new consolidated tape will help reduce trading costs, increase transparency and improve data quality,” said Sarah Pritchard, executive director of markets and executive director of international at the FCA.
Consolidated feeds, the watchdog believes, will not just allow investors to get a complete picture of trades across different platforms, but also make trades more efficient and improve the competitiveness of the UK’s capital markets.
The FCA is starting off with bonds for its tapes rather than equities, as fixed-income data is “more fragmented and less consolidated,” Pritchard said in an interview with Bloomberg TV. The consultation period on the proposed framework will remain open until September 15, with the tender process set to follow next year. The FCA expects the bond tape to be in operation from 2025 onwards.
Pan-European Push
The UK isn’t alone is establishing such feeds, which already exist in the US: The European Union struck a provisional deal to create its own consolidated trading tapes last week in a major breakthrough after years of sluggish progress.
Why Europe Is Overhauling Stock and Bond Trading Data: QuickTake
The UK plans to have a regulatory framework in place by 2024 as part of the Edinburgh reforms, a package of measures designed to improve and modernize the financial services sector.
Sebastian Barling, a financial regulation partner at Linklaters LLP, said the progress would be welcomed by buy-side firms as a first-step in rationalizing and simplifying market data costs.
It will also serve as “an important testing ground to ensure that the economic balance and market usability is pitched correctly,” he added.
The FCA will also consult with market practitioners on launching more reforms to make bonds and derivative trading more transparent later this year, the FCA’s statement said.
Bloomberg LP, the parent of Bloomberg News, competes with firms to aggregate and distribute market and trading data throughout Europe. It’s signed a joint venture agreement with MarketAxess and Tradeweb with the intention of participating in the public procurement procedure to become the EU’s fixed income consolidated tape provider.
–With assistance from Anna Edwards.
(Updates with additional details in paragraph five.)
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