SimpliCT has taken itself out of consideration to be European equities consolidated tape provider.
Aquis Exchange, one of the companies behind the joint venture, stated that it would not be pursuing a bid for economic reasons.
The firm announced its plans to bid for the tape, in partnership with Cboe Markets, in October 2024.
READ MORE: Aquis and Cboe enter the CTP ring
A Cboe Europe representative told Global Trading: “We have worked closely with Aquis to explore, via the SimpliCT joint venture, participation in the public tender process to operate the EU equities consolidated tape. However, after careful consideration we have together decided against proceeding any further.
“We remain strong advocates for the tape and, its potential to strengthen the EU market ecosystem, by helping to drive a more competitive, integrated and attractive EU market and offering choice and flexibility to market data consumers. We remain committed to supporting regulators and the industry to help deliver a tape that meets users’ needs.”
In November, SIX Group announced that it was acquiring Aquis, which led to concerns of a conflict of interest; SIX is a member of bank-led consortium EuroCTP. The group stated that it would withdraw from consortium EuroCTP if the exchange continued its bid for the tape.
Following ESMA’s publication of final regulatory technical standards (RTSs) for CTPs in December, the group’s CEO Eglantine Desautel shared a positive outlook with Global Trading. “When you build a platform, the devil is in the detail. But at this stage, we don’t see any major roadblocks that will require us to break things that we have been working on developing.”
©Markets Media Europe 2024
