TransFICC has confirmed that it will bid to be the fixed income consolidated tape provider in the UK and Europe.
“We’re utilising existing technology, we don’t have to go and hire anyone, and we don’t need to raise any money,” Steve Toland, co-founder of TransFICC, told The DESK, explaining why the company’s offering will stand out from the competition.
“Because we’re using our existing infrastructure and technology, we can provide a low-cost tape and we think that we’ll be able to get to market quicker than some of the other competitors,” he added.
The announcement comes less than a week after BondTape, a collaborative venture between Propellant and Finbourne, shared its intention to enter the tender process.
READ MORE: Finbourne and Propellant launch CTP prospect to compete with fairCT
ESMA will launch its selection process for the much-anticipated European bond tape on 3 January 2025. “[The authority] has been very detailed in terms of the technology requirements of the CTP. Performance, reliability and security are at the forefront of what they’ve been talking about in terms of the RFP; those boxes are already checked in production by TransFICC today,” commented Tim Whipman, head of business development.
In the UK, the FCA plans to begin the tender process before the end of the year. Both tapes are expected to go live in 2026.
TransFICC has been running a CTP pilot for close to two years, with buy-side and sell-side participants, market data firms and trading venues contributing to data contribution and data output testing. “We got feedback from users about contributing data, taking data in from the APAs, and using the data,” Toland said. “We know it works.”
A further differentiating feature for the company is its agility, Toland continued. “There’s a lot of things still to be defined, both in the EU and UK. The regulators and CTP will get some things wrong; you cannot prepare for all eventualities.
“We expect there to be some changes, and the CTP will need to be able to adapt between the two jurisdictions and the overall criteria. We have a very quick release process.”
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