The EU's three largest providers of fixed-income data will explore creating a consolidated tape in a bid to become the bloc's main provider.

A consolidated tape acts to pool and organise data from different exchanges and market makers, aggregating a bond's trade volume and price changes across different venues. Unlike the more uniform data systems in the US, Europe has multiple platforms and disparate regulatory jurisdictions. The mishmash has contributed to a 50% jump in bond data costs over the past five years.