Last week the The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) announced it will tackle competition problems with the trade market data.
The FCA commissioned a report that found that competition in some parts of the wholesale data market was not working as well as it should.
It stated that access to quality and fairly priced trade data is important for the whole financial system. This allows for properly informed, timely investment decisions.
Trading data includes information on prices and volumes traded and supplied by vendors, such as stock exchanges, where shares and other financial products are bought and sold.
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The FCA stated that markets where firms compete to provide good quality wholesale data will make the UK an attractive place to do business for a range of financial service providers. This would also bolster the UK’s international competitiveness, it claims.
The regulator has launched a market study following concerns that competition in other types of wholesale data markets might not be as effective as they should.
The study will investigate potential competition problems in the markets for benchmarks, credit ratings data and market data vendor services. As well as whether these could be resulting in higher costs for investors, be less effective for investment decisions and prevent new firms from entering these markets.
