Fourteen European exchanges have formed a joint venture company to participate in the future selection process for the provision of a consolidated tape (CT) for equities in the European Union.
The participating exchanges - present in 26 EU member states - have signed a term sheet to establish a joint venture that will evaluate and prepare an application as a CT provider in a future selection process.
The project will focus on providing a tape designed to provide a "comprehensive, standardised and consistent source of market data and will seek to collaborate with regulators to develop the optimal solution".
European regulators have long been pushing for the establishment of a consolidated ticker tape for equities covering all member states, with the aim of improving transparancy across EU markets and driving down prices.
A study conducted by Market Partners in 2020 contends that a consolidated tape that could save end investors billions of euros can be built for as little as €11 million with annual running costs of between €7-€9 million.
The exchange initiative comes just days after Bloomberg, MarketAxess and TradeWeb selected Finbourne as the technology integrator for a forthcoming fixed income consolidated tape.