“More ambition” is needed in the European Council’s approach toward a properly constructed consolidated tape (CT) for real-time pre-trade as well as post-trade, says The Association for Financial Markets in Europe (AFME).
The association made the statement on 20 December, adding: “We are somewhat perplexed, however, that CT revenue share is not extended to all execution venues providing their market data.”
The establishment of a properly constructed CT for equities and bonds is an important incremental step toward further integrating EU markets, reducing home biases in EU citizens’ investments and attracting international capital to the EU, the association added.
AFME also issued a comment in response to the European Council agreement on the Markets in Financial Instruments Regulation (MiFIR) proposal to strengthen market transparency, in which Adam Farkas, chief executive of AFME, outlined: “This is a milestone agreement which moves forward negotiations on MiFIR.”
“[The regulation] governs how secondary markets function in the EU which is fundamental for their competitiveness and attracting investments within and into the EU.”
He added: “AFME members in particular welcome the progress made by Member States in reaching this agreement by recognising the need for investor choice in equities trading mechanisms which will allow for cheaper and more efficient execution to be delivered to end investors.
“However, imposing artificial limitations on investors’ choice by maintaining a hard volume cap in the Level one framework may still hinder the EU’s ability to attract global investors to its markets.”
“AFME would encourage the Parliament to consider delegating greater powers to supervisory authorities, which should adopt a data driven approach to the calibration of the deferral regime and consider the combined impact of transparency rules and other regulatory requirements on banks’ capacity to serve their clients,” Farkas concluded.
