Tradeweb, MarketAxess and Bloomberg scrap joint bond prices 'tape' plan
By Huw Jones
LONDON, Dec 8 (Reuters) - Tradeweb, MarketAxess and Bloomberg have scrapped plans to provide a prices tape for the bond market in Britain or the European Union, they said on Friday, citing "risk and complexity".
The EU is seeking to deepen its capital market by creating "consolidated tapes" of stock and bond prices from trading platforms to give investors a market-wide snapshot to find the best deals.
Britain is also looking at setting up similar tapes as Europe seeks to create a more efficient capital market that competes better with Wall Street, which has long had such price tapes.
"Various developments in recent months have added further clarity to the risk and complexity of delivering this project under a joint venture from our three firms," Bloomberg, MarketAxess and Tradeweb said in a joint statement.
"For example, uncertain outcomes around product definitions and structural complexities would significantly increase the timeline and costs associated with this approach. As such, after careful consideration, we have jointly agreed to end our engagement in this venture."
Market participants are mulling whether to put in bids for regulatory approval to offer tapes.
The three companies had announced in May they had set up an independent company to offer a price feed for corporate and government bond trading, with cloud-based financial data management firm FINBOURNE Technology selected to provide the technology to build and operate the tape.
The three companies said they remain independently committed to working with regulators and the industry to contribute to "this very important initiative".
European stock exchanges such as Deutsche Boerse and Euronext have joined forces to create EuroCTP to bid to the EU's securities watchdog ESMA to offer a tape in share prices. (Reporting by Huw Jones Editing by Mark Potter)
