Attendees at the Fixed Income Leaders Summit in Amsterdam were told to get ready for the arrival of the consolidated tape in Europe, with a promise it will happen very soon and at a competitive price point.
In a panel held under the Chatham House rule, which prevents quoting of the speakers, the audience were reassured that despite reported delays, and a legal case challenging the awarding of the tape in the UK, that the providers would be ready to deliver the tape in Europe and the UK next year.
UK markets regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority, has since confirmed that the UK contract value of £4 million over five years actually represents its own estimate of the “potential revenue the concessionaire / consolidated tape provider may receive from the licence fees … over a five year period,” and that the FCA “will not pay fees to the awarded supplier”.
It had previously been reported that the contract value was the winning bid that the selected supplier, Etrading Software, had made for the contract. This clarification opens the question as to what the winning bid for the contract was.
The awarding of the UK contract has been delayed pending a court case brought by rival bidder, Ediphy, which won the bid for the European tape. Court papers for the case have still not been filed with the UK High Court several weeks after the case was announced.
In its consultation paper explaining cost benefit analysis of the tape, the FCA wrote: “The CTP will be able to charge users for accessing the data. We are unable, on the information currently available, to assess total value and as such have used cost to assess this. The anticipated total value of the CT Contract to the CTP is in the region of £29.5 million.”
“£29.5 million represents our cost-benefit analysis estimates which, as we said in paragraph 10.6 of FCA consultation paper 23/33, produced total costs in the range of £14 to £45 million for the CTP to establish and run itself over the 5-year contract term. The central estimate within this range is £29.5 million.”
©Markets Media Europe 2025
