European bourses join forces in bid to operate stocks price feed

Euronext Athens Holding SA

16/02/2023 09:18

By Huw Jones
       LONDON, Feb 16 (Reuters) - Euronext, Deutsche Boerse and
12 other European stock exchange groups on Thursday said they
would jointly propose creating a combined feed of their share
prices to investors, throwing down the gauntlet to rivals ahead
of European Union legislation.
    EU states and the European Parliament are due in coming
months to finalise a draft law that would mandate exchanges to
provide prices of stock transactions on their platforms to a low
price "consolidated tape" (CT) for investors to spot the best
deals.
    Brussels wants to make its capital market deeper and more
efficient by knitting a fragmented trading landscape. A tape has
long been a feature of Wall Street. Banks and asset managers
complain that the price of market data, a key money-spinner for
bourses, is too expensive.
    Once the draft law has been approved, the bloc's securities
watchdog ESMA would oversee a selection process for a CT
provider, and the exchanges, which also include Nasdaq, SIX
Group in Spain, and bourses in Vienna, Prague and Warsaw, said
they would submit a proposal.
    "The participants are recognised specialists in supplying
reliable and high-quality market data and are well positioned to
deliver a CT quickly, efficiently, and to the highest
operational standards," the exchanges said in a joint statement.
    "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 for investors."
    Bourses have called the CT proposal an "elaborate and
complex experiment".
    Past efforts to build a tape failed after exchanges refused
to voluntarily provide data for a price that would make it
viable.
    The EU draft law proposes a tape showing prices which are
"as close to real time as technically possible", but exchanges
have lobbied for a CT with a delay of 15 minutes after a share
transaction, a time gap which EU policymakers say would be of no
use to investors.
 (Reporting by Huw Jones; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta)
 ((huw.jones@thomsonreuters.com; +44 207 542 3326; Reuters
Messaging: huw.jones.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))