SCIENCE

NYSE Euronext has announced plans that its wholly owned subsidiary NYSE Technologies will launch a consolidated tape for European equity markets beginning Q3 2011. The tape will be available both as a real-time consolidated data feed and as a 15-minute delayed ’Tape of Record’. The ‘Tape of Record’ will be free of charge to all investors and will be made broadly available via both the internet and market data vendors. The consolidated tape will contain complete coverage of post-trade equities data from all European regulated exchanges, MTFs, and OTC markets. The initiative will further increase transparency as a wider access to consolidated post-trade and OTC trading data will be made possible.

NYSE Technologies will invite other markets to partner in providing consolidated tape solutions and will supply the technology to other providers and approved publication agents (APA’s) to power their own tapes. In July 2010 NYSE Technologies entered into a strategic partnership with Markit BOAT*, the largest trade reporting venue in Europe within its own range of market data products, to deliver a consolidated OTC tape that includes trades reported to Markit BOAT and NYSE Euronext’s OTC trade reporting platform which together account for nearly all OTC trading activity in Europe.

NYSE Technologies will be able to deliver the real-time service at a fraction of the cost investors incur today for real-time consolidated data, due to the adoption of unbundled pricing for post-trade data by exchanges. Broad distribution will be achieved because of the fee waivers for all end-users of delayed data. The regulatory oversight proposed by the Committee of European Securities Regulators (CESR) under the APA regime together with the recommended trade reporting standards will appropriately address the OTC trade reporting quality issues and enable competition.

“Trade reporting standards enable competition which in turn, brings the innovation and cost reduction needed to resolve Europe ’s transparency burdens”, said Dominique Cerutti , President and Deputy CEO, NYSE Euronext. “A European ‘Tape of Record’ will address the critical elements in the MiFID post-trade transparency debate relating to the quality and cost of consolidated equity post-trade data”.

”A ’Tape of Record' is a very simple and practical application of the newly-defined standards that address transparency issues in a manner very similar to what investors already know today as 'time and sales’” added Mark Schaedel, Global Head of Data Products, NYSE Technologies. “While there is no single source for ‘time and sales’ data today, it informs investors with a consistent view of the markets. We are leveraging our technology platform and strategic relationship with Markit BOAT in a way that addresses the real problems investors face”.

“The consolidated tape has been highlighted by regulators and market participants as an important area of focus. As a market participant, I look forward to comparing this proposed solution with the others, either regulator or market driven, which will be offered to the market”, said Scott Cowling, Head of Scientific Equity Trading at BlackRock in Europe.