Among the successful parties are Etrading Software and BondTape, The TRADE can reveal. 

In December 2023, Etrading Software confirmed plans to bid to become the consolidated tape provider (CTP) for both the UK and EU.  

“I am delighted to confirm ESMA has invited Etrading Software (ETS) to participate in the second stage of their Bond CTP Selection and Award process.  We are very much looking forward to having the opportunity to present our solution – ETS Connect – for this important and transformative service,” James Haskell, chief operating officer, Etrading Software, tells The TRADE. 

BondTape is the partnership made up of Propellant and FINBOURNE, with the firms having also confirmed plant to compete to become the UK’s bond consolidated tape provider. 

“We are very happy to progress as the tenders gather pace in both jurisdictions. As speed of delivery will be key, the experience the Bondtape partners already have in delivering production-quality, consolidated market data to banks, asset managers, hedge funds, trading venues and academics differentiates our offering,” said Neil Ryan, CEO-designate at Bondtape. 

ESMA communicated its decision directly to the relevant bidders, The TRADE understands. 

In addition, the fairCT consortium, co-ordinated by Ediphy, confirmed its intention to bid for the European fixed income tape in September 2024, as well as also gearing up to apply in the UK.  

The fairCT consortium consists of Google Cloud, UBS, TP ICAP, Cboe Global Markets, FactSet, and Norges Bank Investment Management. Whether they have been invited to proceed to the next stage is unconfirmed. 

ESMA launched the first stage of the selection procedure for the bond consolidated tape provider (CTP) in January of this year, with interested parties invited to submit by 7 February 2025. 

The watchdog has now assessed these requests against its ‘exclusion and selection criteria’ before informing successful candidates today that they may participate in this second stage. 

As previously communicated, ESMA is set to appoint a CTP by early July 2025, with the successful applicant invited to operate the consolidated tape for a five-year period. 

Read more –  Consolidated tape: Avoiding a ‘garbage in and garbage out exercise’ 

ESMA had not responded to a request for comment at the time of publishing. 

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Oliver Haste

This move has allowed stakeholders insight into what CTs could look like, aimed at allowing participants to begin planning for how they might use the tapes.

Oliver Haste, chief administrative officer, designate, Bondtape, said: “These prototypes show the market that we are already capable of delivering robust, high-quality tapes and that we are committed to working together with the industry to develop the best product. 

“While these prototypes are only a small window into what the final tapes will look like, we believe in the power of demonstrating working products as early as possible to inspire confidence and seek actionable feedback.” 

Focused on both the EU and UK’s transparency regimes respectively, the prototypes consist of a ‘blotter’ each, comprised of the trade reports published on a given day. 

Specifically, the blotter updates intraday and includes a sorting and filtering functionality, allowing users to search by: maturities, venues, specific sets of international securities identification numbers (ISINs), and other areas. 

Read more: EU and UK regulators reveal updated plans for bond tape frameworks

According to Bondtape, the prototype “includes a functionality to ‘cleanse’ the reports, removing ‘out-of-date’ entries and leaving only the most recent, accurate version of a trade report,” importantly meeting FCA requirements for providers to offer both ‘raw’ and ‘clean’ data, which when used in practice work to prevent the ‘double-counting’ of trades.

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