Getting the bond market’s scattered post-trade data into a single view would be a good thing, market actors and the EU Commission agree. The latter has now presented the implementation of a consolidated trading tape, “in particular for corporate bond issuances”, as a piece in its MiFID/MiFIR review this year.
“As part of [its 2021 review of MiFID/MiFIR], the Commission will propose to improve, simplify and further harmonise the securities markets transparency framework to increase secondary trading in euro-denominated debt instruments,” the EU Commission writes on page 8 of this communication paper.
“This will include the design and implementation of a consolidated trading tape, in particular for corporate bond issuances – a central database, which aggregates the various post-trade data sources into a single view. A consolidated tape will ensure that more trading takes place on transparent regulated platforms, thereby increasing market depth and attractiveness of euro-denominated securities both for issuers and investors,” it continues.
Styled by ICMA task force
Details of the upcoming solution were proposed last year, by a task force under the International Capital Market Association (ICMA) at the EU’s request. (For an introduction to what it is all about, the two-page executive summary on pages 7–8 of ICMA’s proposal report is a great place to start reading.)