Bloomberg, MarketAxess and Tradeweb Markets today jointly issued the following statement:
“We are pleased to announce an initiative to jointly explore the delivery of a consolidated tape for fixed income instruments in the European Union, with the intention to apply to become the consolidated tape provider (CTP) through the public procurement procedure, which the European Securities and Markets Authority, ESMA, will organize.
“European financial markets would benefit greatly from a well-functioning fixed income consolidated tape, and industry collaboration will be essential to delivering a solution that utilizes existing infrastructure to provide end users with access to reliable, high-quality MiFID II data.
“We believe that the European Commission’s draft proposed legislative revisions would open a window to developing a robust consolidated tape that will increase market transparency and help facilitate an integrated, single European capital market.
“With our collective expertise in fixed income markets and in operating regulatory reporting entities – notably Approved Publication Arrangements (APAs) for MiFIR reporting – we are in a unique position to deliver a reliable, efficient and cost effective consolidated tape service that meets the needs of market participants and the objectives of the regulators.
“The consolidated tape service is expected to be provided – subject to the relevant regulatory approvals – via a joint venture company established and operated independently from our respective businesses. If successful in winning the mandate, the company would be authorized and supervised by ESMA to provide transparency in fixed income markets pursuant to MiFID II.
“As a next step, we are preparing a competitive request for information process to review independent third-party technology and operating partner(s) for the consolidated tape service.”