CEO Open Letter: FINBOURNE and the European Fixed Income Consolidated Tape

Over the last 18 months we have intensely researched and analysed the trading data that will form the basis of a Consolidated Tape (CT). As part of this, we recently participated in a rigorous process against a number of industry peers and won the tender to become the technology infrastructure provider for the Bloomberg, MarketAxess and Tradeweb initiative that is exploring forming the technology foundation for a consolidated tape (CT) for fixed income in Europe. The initiative is subject to customary regulatory approvals.

We’re 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). Importantly, we see this as further validation of our modern, cloud-based, API-first technology, to deliver critical market data access and transparency.

In recent weeks, I’ve been asked why we we’ve taken on this herculean challenge, only six years into the business. The answer is simple. Going back to our mission, we feel a CT will play a vital role in enhancing industry-wide transparency. Being at the cutting-edge of data aggregation, transformation and virtualisation, we are confident we can deliver a robust and scalable platform, to support and grow capital markets in the EU.

Rather than work in isolation to reconfigure market data infrastructure, we believe openness and market engagement are critical in the process of creating a CT. It is why we have and will continue to collaborate with the market, a number of leading buy and sell side stakeholders, and industry bodies, including the AFM, to collectively understand the data, its quality and how to deliver a resilient and practical CT to the market.

To date, we have investigated over 170 million transaction records, shining a spotlight on the data quality issues that will need to be addressed by regulatory bodies, to create a fit-for-purpose CT. We have also published and contributed to a number of whitepapers, taking a deeper dive into the potential challenges with the data in its current state.

Facilitating change is integral to our mission and in everything we do. It is the driving force behind the achievements, ambition and value creation our employees deliver.  We’ve worked hard to drive the best kind of talent investment at FINBOURNE, developing the right skills, knowledge and expertise to serve our clients.

Now, the next step for us is to work together with Bloomberg, MarketAxess and Tradeweb to materialize our vision of providing a robust and reliable CT for the EU bond markets. We look forward to this new chapter, as we begin to put our vision for capital markets in motion.

Thomas McHugh 

CEO and Co-Founder, FINBOURNE Technology