The Unique Characteristics of the UK bond Consolidated Tape
Amid all the noise around legal challenges, there’s a risk that we lose sight of the value the UK bond Consolidated Tape represents to the global fixed income community. That value is largely predicated on the role that the UK plays in global fixed income trading and how that influence shows up in the data.
Although a series of BREXIT-related factors have impacted UK markets in recent years, based on both historical precedents and geographical advantage, a quick look at the UK tape data reinforces the pivotal position UK markets enjoy.
For example, in terms of a simple scale, the UK tape will ultimately represent 58%1 of all European transactions. By comparison with the EU equivalent, the UK tape is far more international with 75% of all USD-denominated transactions (credit and sovereign) being printed on the UK tape, along with nearly 75% of all emerging market credit deals. Of course, the UK tape also dominates in GBP-denominated activity with between 80%–90% of all sterling transactions being executed in London. The EU tape leads in euro-denominated trading, though to a much lesser extent, with two-thirds being executed in mainland Europe versus one-third of EURO transactions executed on UK venues.
Returning to USD bonds for a moment, it’s been noted elsewhere that the UK’s regulatory framework will make the UK bond CT more transparent than TRACE in certain areas. For example, the UK data will include both on and off-the-run UST transactions, and unlike TRACE, the UK will not impose notional caps on block trades. With more than $14 trillion in USD-denominated activity recorded in the first half of 2025, and the added transparency the UK bond CT will bring to the US market, it’s hard to see it as anything other than a useful resource for any USD-focused trading desk. That includes US-based traders for whom the UK bond CT will offer a novel and dependable source of pre-market data at the start of their day.
All of this, along with many other considerations, serves to reinforce the value of UK data to the global fixed income community — and the need to launch it with as little delay as possible. It’s important for the markets, for UK PLC, and for European transparency and competitiveness.
- Based on Etrading Software’s internal data/analysis. ↩︎
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