We have filed an application with the High Court, asking it to lift the suspension on the bond consolidated tape contract award.

If the High Court were to lift this suspension, it would allow the FCA to sign a contract with Etrading Software (ETS), so we can move forward with delivering the tape and defending the legal challenge in parallel.

The tape will provide a single and reliable view of the UK bond market. It will enable investors to make informed decisions and help maintain the UK’s position as a highly competitive and compelling place to invest and grow.

It is in the public interest to deliver the important benefits of the tape as soon as possible. It is our position that the legal challenge, which we consider to be without merit, should not get in the way of that.

We will submit our formal defence to the legal challenge by the end of the week.

We will continue to engage data contributors and users, alongside ETS.

We want to provide clarity to industry that we are moving forward as quickly as possible, so market participants can prepare for the tape.

Further information

We undertook a fair, competitive 2-stage process to ensure the provider could deliver a high-quality tape and the best value for money, including:

• A quality stage to ensure the provider could meet regulatory requirements and service obligations, including on financial resources, resiliency, data availability and service speed.
• A price auction to determine which bidder, based on the quality commitments made in stage 1, could offer the best price to users of the tape.

Source: FCA