FCA Moves to Lift Suspension on UK Bond Consolidated Tape Contract
The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has asked the High Court to remove a suspension preventing it from finalising a contract for the country’s first bond consolidated tape, a key market data infrastructure project aimed at improving transparency and reducing costs for market participants. The FCA is seeking approval to proceed with signing the contract with Etrading Software, which was selected in August to deliver the £4.8 million project. A consolidated tape aggregates trade data from multiple venues into a single, standardised feed — a long-anticipated upgrade designed to simplify data access in the UK fixed-income market. However, the process was halted in September after rival bidder Ediphy launched a legal challenge. According to reporting by Financial News, Ediphy argues that a technical error in the auction platform caused its bid to be wrongly excluded. The company, which recently secured a mandate from the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) to provide the consolidated tape for bonds in the EU, is now pursuing damages. In its application to the High Court, the FCA is asking for permission to execute the contract with Etrading Software while simultaneously defending against Ediphy’s challenge. The regulator said advancing the project is crucial for market transparency and should not be delayed by litigation it believes is “without merit.” “It is in the public interest to deliver the important benefits of the tape as soon as possible,” the FCA noted in a statement, emphasising the need to keep market infrastructure reforms on track. How This Affects the Market and Industry Stakeholders The FCA’s push to lift the suspension underscores the urgency behind the UK’s efforts to modernise its market data infrastructure. For years, both institutional investors and trading firms have criticised the high cost and fragmented nature of fixed-income data. A consolidated tape is widely seen as a cornerstone reform that could level the playing field, reduce data expenses, and increase post-trade transparency — all of which align the UK more closely with global regulatory standards. If the High Court allows the contract to move forward, the UK could finally close the gap with regions like the U.S. and the EU, where consolidated tapes are already advancing. The move would also reaffirm the FCA’s commitment to post-Brexit competitiveness by strengthening London’s capital markets ecosystem. However, the legal challenge highlights an important friction point: the competitive tensions within the market-data vendor landscape. Companies like Ediphy, which already secured the EU’s bond tape mandate, have strong incentives to question procurement processes, especially if they believe technical issues affected fairness. This reflects a broader industry trend where market-data contracts are no longer just technical projects — they’re strategic footholds in a global data race. For market participants, any delay prolongs the status quo of fragmented data sources and high access costs. For fintech providers and trading platforms, the eventual rollout of a consolidated tape could unlock new analytics products, automated trading efficiencies, and regulatory reporting improvements. In short, the outcome of this court process will shape not only how UK firms access bond data, but also how the country positions itself in the evolving global market-data landscape.