The FCA has launched a consultation on proposals to introduce a UK equity consolidated tape to help increase capital investment and liquidity in equity markets.
The city watchdog said that equity trading in the UK is spreading across multiple trading venues, “sparking competition, innovation and lowering the cost of trading”.
However, the issue behind this is that it can also make it “challenging for market participants to assess overall market liquidity, causing it to be underestimated”.
A consolidated tape is a single, centralised feed of real-time trade and price data for shares traded across all UK venues.
The Financial Conduct Authority believes this would provide investors “with a more comprehensive and clear view of the market”.
“This will help boost market participation and the global competitiveness of UK equity markets.”
This makes up part of the FCA’s strategic priority to support growth. The new framework aims to:
- Improve market effectiveness by providing a clear, consistent view of trading volumes and prices across UK venues.
- Support UK listings by giving firms and investors a more complete picture of liquidity in UK equity markets.
- Increase participation in UK markets by ensuring easy and affordable access to market data, supporting liquidity.
- Strengthen international competitiveness by enabling informed comparisons of liquidity with major financial centres including the US and EU.
The FCA is seeking feedback on introducing a tape that includes post-trade data. The consultation remains open until 30 January 2026.
The equity tape aims to be in operation in 2027. After two years of operation, the FCA will review the framework’s effectiveness, including whether pre-trade data levels should be varied.
FCA interim executive director of markets Simon Walls said: “UK markets offer diverse trading options, which can be great for competition, choice and lowering trading fees. But this landscape makes it harder to assess liquidity as a whole in our markets.
“The equity consolidated tape seeks to tackle this challenge head on by delivering more straightforward access to equity market data from across venues, supporting better decisions and boosting market participation.”
The FCA has already established a framework for a bond tape. However, this has received a legal challenge on the award of the contract for the consolidated tape provider.
The FCA has filed an application with the High Court, asking it to lift the suspension on the contract award.
