European Fund and Asset e Association and EFSA welcome the publication of a Market Structure Partners Study on the Creation of an EU Consolidated Tape which addresses the challenges, demand, benefits and proposed architecture for consolidating European financial market data.

We believe that an appropriately const​ructed consolidated tape (“CT”) could help to build deeper and more open capital markets in Europe. In line with the European Commission’s vision for the Capital Markets Union, a key aim should be to democratise access across European markets to provide all investors regardless of resources or sophistication with a comprehensive and standardised view of European trading.

Our members do not believe that a CT is the solution to the concerning issue of increasing market data costs. This issue must be addressed head-on, including through the proper enforcement of the MiFID II and MiFIR requirements, standardisation of pricelists, policies, audit procedures, etc.**, regardless of the existence of a CT.

The two issues are nevertheless connected as the commercial viability of the consolidated tape provider (CTP) will be closely connected to the price at which it obtains input data from trading venues and Approved Publication Arrangements (APAs) as well.

We look forward to engaging with the Commission and regulators over the coming months to address the challenges relating to the development of a CT and the issue of increasing market data costs.

Source: EFAMA