The European Parliament’s proposal on the Equities Consolidated Tape has received further industry support, this time from 18 major European buy-side firms.
The proposal aims to construct an equities/ETF tape during a review of market regulattions known as Mifid and Mifir.
Invesco, Legal and General and Schroders were among the firms to advise on how to appropriately construct the tape.
Mifid II proposed the creation of a consolidated tape, which would combine data from across the EU to act as a single price comparison.
In a letter to policymakers, signed by the 18 European buy-side firms, published via the European Fund and Asset Management Association (Efama), the firms recommended how to make the tape commercially viable.
The equities/ETF consolidated tape should include ETF and equities on a single tape and deliver in as close to real-time as technically possible.
They stated that it should also provide pre- and post-trade transparency in the form of five layers of pre-trade data.
The joint industry letter also stated that the tape's cost should not be high in a market for trading data where prices are "already very high, disconnected from the cost of production and suffering from a lack of competition."
Even though the firms declared full support for the equities/ETF tape, they argued the tape required further governance. They suggested a framework be established to ensure that a large group of market participants govern decisions regarding policies and fees, data content and speed and connectivity.
The consolidated tape has been broadly welcomed by other groups. In February, Cboe Europe and the German investment funds trade body, BVI, expressed support for the tape.
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