Plans for a new EU financial data wire raise fears of a new monopoly

The EU plans to mandate a new financial market trade data service, promising transparency and investment – but others fear it’ll just create a new monopoly. 

EU securities markets watchdog ESMA last week (28 August) closed a consultation on services that could be on the market by 2026, but some fear the move will give stock exchanges even more centralised power.  

The EU has long hoped to develop its fledgling capital markets, and hopes a series of new consolidated tapes could help it unify a fragmented ecosystem.  

Publishing details of the price and volume of securities trades – an electronic version of the stock price ticker tapes seen in old films – could bring transparency, competition, and modernity to markets that are surprisingly old-fashioned, proponents believe.  

“A true single market cannot exist without a more integrated view of EU trading,” the European Commission said in a 2020 action plan for capital markets. 

Letting financial market participants compare a stock or bond traded in Paris, Frankfurt or one of the bloc’s 300-odd regulated trading venues would attract much-needed capital, the Commission believes.  

It would also keep pace with rivals: the US has had a consolidated tape for half a century, and the UK is introducing one soon.  

EU laws from 2014 contained provisions for the service – but “nobody applied for it”, Eglantine Desautel told Euronews, citing the difficulties gathering and paying for data from across the EU ecosystem.

Now, under a legal refresh which took effect in March, the idea could be financially viable, believes Desautel, whose company EuroCTP will bid to run the equity tape.

“We are passionate about making it, and designing a product that will meet the needs of the clients,” Desautel