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The COBA Project today announced the conclusions of its industry collaboration designed to establish a consolidated tape for European equities. Further to the proposal outlined in its open letter dated 27th November 2012, The COBA Project engaged in broad industry consultation and organised a key stakeholders working group for an initial phase of delivery. The positions below summarise the majority views of each constituent group based upon consultation and feedback:
- Many Exchanges are willing to adopt the proposed commercial model and participate in a post-trade solution but remain concerned with the risks related to the potential expansion of scope to include pre-trade data.
- Data vendors are willing to adopt common technical specifications which are designed to improve consolidated data quality and consistency but question whether there is sufficient user demand for post-trade only scope.
- Sell-side participants are concerned with the impact of adopting best practices for OTC trade reporting and are seeking the maximum reduction in market data costs.
- Buy side participants are generally supportive of proposal but unwilling to incur any incremental cost which may be associated with a phased implementation.
- Regulators and policy makers are unable to endorse any commercial initiative and due to increased political pressure to revert to a single tape provider solution, there is significant execution risk for any commercial solution.
Having taken these positions into account, The COBA Project has concluded that there is insufficient support to pursue implementation as proposed. The COBA Project has been suspended pending the consideration of alternative proposals.
