The EU’s long-drawn-out endeavour to establish a consolidated tape finally came to a head this week when the European Council announced that it has adopted changes to the Markets in Financial Instruments Regulation (MiFIR) and Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID). The council stated that the new rules aim to “give investors a better access to market data”, and “increase the global competitiveness of the EU’s capital markets”.
The establishment of EU-level consolidated tapes will centralise data feeds for different asset types, “bringing together market data provided by platforms on which financial instruments are traded in the EU”. The information will be published in close to real time. In addition, the changes have imposed a ban on payment for order flow (PFOF). Brokers will no longer be allowed to receive payments for forwarding client orders to certain trading platforms.
PostTrade 360° has followed the consolidated tape debate closely over the past year. Our extensive coverage of the topic can be viewed here.