Data is undoubtedly the beating heart of capital markets, and its importance in regulatory efforts, to drive market transparency and supervision was a key talking point at the FIX EMEA Trading Conference 2026 on Thursday.
Emphasising the market’s dependence of high-quality data, one panellist referenced the well-known quote by economist W. Edwards Deming, which states that “without data you’re just another person with an opinion.”
With this in mind, conversations turned to the central role that data collection and usage play in regulatory oversight, with suggestions that less burdensome data requirements will drive market transparency and supervision.
Against this backdrop, panellists discussed how regulators across Europe and the UK can best harness data to capitalise on these opportunities. A recurring theme was the ongoing need for consistent conversation and collaboration with market participants to ensure this success, with one panellist asserting that “public data standards should be largely industry driven and not regulatory driven.”
This was also echoed by one regulation expert, who asserted: “We want genuine discussions and conversations with the market, and we’re thinking about how we optimise the transparency, and have addressable liquidity.
“There are ways in which we can improve in terms of the scope of trade reporting and flagging the new trade reports. We want to ask questions around what we think the longer-term direction might be, and what impact might that have?”
Building on this, discussions also indicated that having strong data can be used across European markets as a tool to drive forward further innovation and showcase the continent’s liquidity to participants across the whole world.
The starting point for this, in 2026 at least, appears to be the upcoming consolidated tapes, with the UK bond tape set to go live in June, followed closely by the EU’s equity tape in early July.
Read more – Policymakers must implement changes now to enhance data for EU’s consolidated tape, urges EFAMA
With hopes that the delivery of these tapes will bring an elevated level of transparency and liquidity to European markets, panellists expressed optimism that these developments will spark further investment in Europe and boost its global competitiveness.
“Thinking about the impact on the economy is essential to anything behind the tape,” said one expert.
“Ultimately what we want is a tool that will showcase liquidity to companies around the world so they know this is a great place to come and list, raise capital and grow, to then make trading more efficient so that markets become more liquid and continue to get better outcomes. That runs through all our work on data.”
Communication and synergy between regulators and market participants therefore appear more critical than ever.
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As one panellist concluded: “We really want to understand the landscape that we’re regulating within. We’ve also said that we want to be a smarter regulator and part of what that means for us is constantly challenging ourselves.”