FCA rips up trading tape in post-Brexit rules overhaul
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has tabled a swathe of reforms to the way that City traders access data today as part of its post-Brexit push to strip red tape from the UK’s financial services sector.
In a statement today, the watchdog said it is looking to set up a “consolidated tape” (CT) for City traders which will condense multiple streams of data in one place and allow investors make “better, more timely decisions”.
A tape in trading acts as a record of all stock trades throughout the day and includes size, price and time of the transaction. The new consolidated tape will “increase transparency and access to trading data”, the FCA said, as well as slashing costs and improving the quality of the data..
The reforms come as part of a wider push to overhaul the regulation governing the City amid fears London is losing its appeal on the international stage. The government is set to shift greater power into the hands of regulators and allows them to tweak rules via the landmark post-Brexit Financial Services and Markets Bill.
Sarah Pritchard, executive director of markets and executive director of international at the FCA, said the watchdog was adapting its rules to provide “certainty for firms and so providing a good environment for investment.”
“The new consolidated tape will help reduce trading costs, increase transparency and improve data quality,” she added.
The FCA is proposing a CT initially for the bonds market followed by equities. A competitive tender process is now set to be opened up for a single firm to provide the CT for bonds.
The announcement came amid a wider package of reforms from the FCA, with the regulator launching a support service for overseas wholesale firms and their advisers looking to expand into the UK and firms already in the UK but planning to set up in the devolved nations and outside the south-east.
Regulators have recently tabled a slew of reforms to London’s listings market in a bid to boost the appeal of the Capital. Fears have spread of the decline of London’s standing as an international centre amid an IPO slowdown.
The watchdog has proposed merging the premium and standard segments of the market and raising the threshold for requiring shareholder approval for big deals.