Britain aims for 2027 roll out of stock trade 'tape' to boost market 

By Phoebe Seers and Charlie Conchie

LONDON (Reuters) -Britain's financial regulator said on Wednesday it was pushing ahead with plans to combine real-time data from different equity trading platforms into a single feed, launching a consultation on a system it expects to go live in 2027.

Such a "consolidated tape" is intended to provide greater transparency for investors and companies and encourage more firms to list on UK exchanges. 

In its consultation paper, the Financial Conduct Authority said a more comprehensive view of trading would help combat the perception that British markets are more illiquid than international counterparts.

It proposed including post-trade data and attributed best bid and offer prices from multiple UK trading venues.

'LONG-NEEDED TRANSPARENCY'

A consolidated tape would "support the attractiveness of the UK as a listing destination, by providing a more accessible view of total UK equity market liquidity for issuers and investors", the FCA said.

A lack of perceived liquidity on the London Stock Exchange has been cited as one of the reasons for an exodus of companies from the market and a dearth of IPOs in recent years. Several companies have left for the U.S., which has long operated a consolidated tape.

Eleanor Beasley, Goldman Sachs' head of market structure, said a UK tape would bring "long-needed transparency" and play a "meaningful role in attracting capital and driving future growth". 

The FCA plans to tender formally for the tape provider mid next year. 

DEBATE OVER PRE-TRADE DATA

The FCA has proposed including “first-level” pre-trade data - the attributed best bid and offer from UK venues that make such information publicly available - in the tape. 

Some market participants say more data, including prices and volumes beyond the best available prices, would give a clearer picture of liquidity, and would be key to a tape's success.

"A tape with real-time continuous data to five levels of book depth and full attribution will be more attractive to users and more likely to become economically self-sustaining," said April Day, head of capital markets at the Association for Financial Markets in Europe.

The London Stock Exchange Group has previously said there was no clear use case for a tape with pre-trade data, as vendors already provide that information. A person familiar with the group’s position said it had not changed.

After two years of operation, the regulator said it would consider whether to adjust the level of pre-trade data in the tape - a term originally used to describe how stock prices were transmitted. The watchdog's 10-week consultation seeks feedback on those proposals. 

EU PLANS TO SELECT PROVIDER BY YEAR-END

The U.S. has long operated tapes for stock and bond prices, while the European Union plans to select a provider for its equities tape by year-end.

EuroCTP, a joint venture of European exchanges including Deutsche Boerse and Euronext, is the only confirmed bidder for the EU's tape.

The FCA has chosen a provider for a bond tape, but that rollout faces delays due to a legal challenge.

(Reporting by Yadarisa Shabong in Bengaluru and Phoebe Seers and Charlie Conchie in London. Editing by Ed Osmond and Mark Potter)