Bloomberg, MarketAxess and Tradeweb to Form Jointly Firm Providing EU Consolidated Tape for Fixed Income

Bloomberg has entered into a joint venture agreement with MarketAxess and Tradeweb Markets to establish an independent company to operate a consolidated tape provider (CTP) for fixed income instruments in the EU region. MarketAxess operates a leading electronic trading platform for fixed-income securities, and provides market data and post-trade services for the global fixed-income markets, while Tradeweb Markets operates as a leading global operator of electronic marketplaces for rates, credit, equities and money markets.

The initiative was first proposed in June 2022 when the three companies issued a joint statement stating that they would "jointly explore the delivery of a consolidated tape for fixed income instruments in the European Union".

The new independent company will provide European investors with a more transparent and efficient fixed income consolidated tape, enabling investors to improve their understanding of market conditions and make more informed investment decisions.

According to the official announcement, the companies appointed Neil Ryan, an industry veteran with more than 30 years of experience in senior positions across the public and private sectors, to lead the CTP initiative. In addition, they have onboarded cloud-native financial data management firm FINBOURNE to help the new joint venture build and operate the CTP.

"The time has come to provide the European fixed income markets with a consolidated tape that is led by an initiative with deep experience in low-latency data processing, cleansing, consolidation and publishing within a regulated framework," said Neil Ryan. "Our motivation is to improve transparency and spur electronification in the fixed income space. Our end goal is a cost-effective CT that treats both data contributors and consumers fairly, while enabling open and impartial access to meaningful and helpful data using existing infrastructure."

"We are pleased to have won the tender to work with these leading firms, who are deeply focused on quality data, and are highly experienced in fixed income markets and running regulated Approved Publication Arrangements (APAs)," commented Thomas McHugh, CEO and Co-Founder of FINBOURNE Technology. "Importantly, we see this as further validation of our modern, cloud-based, API-first technology, to deliver critical market data access and transparency."