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The Board of the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) today published a
report that sets out some issues and considerations for regulators when reviewing the regulation of
market data.
The Report Market Data in the Secondary Equity Market: Current Issues and Considerations
highlights that market data is an essential element of efficient price discovery and for maintaining fair
and efficient markets. Specifically, market data enables market participants to identify liquidity, make
informed order ro
As secondary markets have evolved, market data needs have changed and market participants in many
jurisdictions have raised concerns about the costs, accessibility, fairness, and consolidation of market
data. The Report Market Data in the Secondary Equity Markets published in December 2020 explored
these data issues and asked for feedback and potential solutions to some of the concerns raised
regarding what data is needed for trading, the uses of market data, fair, equitable and timely access to
market data and the consolidation of data.
In this report, IOSCO provides a summary of the comments received and based on these, offers three
considerations for regulators when reviewing the regulation of market data provided by trading venues
or OTC markets:
• Pre-trade data (i.e., information about orders or quotations) and post-trade data (i.e.,
information about executions) are important in promoting transparency of trading. As
appropriate, it is important to consider the elements of market data that are necessary to
facilitate the ability of all market participants to effectively and fairly participate in secondarymarkets and to make informed investment, order routing and trading decisions. The needs of
market participants may differ depending on factors such as, participants’ business model,
market structure in the particular jurisdiction, or the type of participants in the market (retail,
institutional, proprietary).
• Fair access to market data is important for providing market data to market participants. Fair
access may cover issues including market data pricing, connectivity terms and pricing, and
contractual arrangements. Market data is not interchangeable in all cases, and where
appropriate, helping to ensure fair access across different execution venues is an important
consideration. In addition, the extent to which access to free or delayed data can meet the
needs of some participants may be a useful consideration.
• Where appropriate, consolidation may improve access to market data and may, in some
circumstances, be useful in helping to reduce its costs, identify liquidity and compare
execution quality in jurisdictions where there may be fragmented liquidity.