Real-time financial market data will make UK more attractive to do business’

The systems, known as ‘consolidated tapes’ or ‘ticker tapes’, collate market data, such as prices and volumes. Major exchanges like the New York Stock Exchange already use consolidated tapes to report trades and quotes – but there are no consolidated tapes used in the UK. The proposal is limited to post-trade data for bonds.

Elizabeth Budd of Pinsent Masons said the 2023 Financial Services and Markets Act, which passed into law earlier this month, has opened up the FCA’s ability to progress with its regulatory reforms. “The consolidated tape proposal is one of the first consultations off the starting blocks,” she added.

“Having a single place for bond post-trade data certainly sounds attractive and hopefully will help to address the high cost of market data which has been a long-standing concern for the industry. If this is achieved, it will assist in making the UK a more attractive place to do business,” Budd said.

The FCA’s consultation (159 pages / 1.59MB PDF) comes after its 2022 wholesale market review identified that the UK government wanted to revise the existing regulatory regime to enable the emergence of a consolidated tape in the UK.

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s so-called ‘Edinburgh Reforms’, unveiled last year, also committed HM Treasury and the FCA to putting a legislative and regulatory regime in place by 2024 to facilitate the emergence of a UK consolidated tape.

The deadline for responses to the FCA’s consultation is 15 September 2023. The regulator said it will then consider feedback and make any necessary amendments to its handbook in December 2023. It also plans to publish a policy statement on consolidated tape at the same time.