In the future, there will be an electronic system in the EU in which market data from assets from different financial platforms will be brought together. Negotiators from the EU countries and the European Parliament agreed on this in Brussels. The market data of all trading platforms should therefore be included in a kind of ticker that aims to publish the information as close as possible to real time, according to a statement from the countries. In this way, investors would have access to up-to-date transaction data for the entire EU.
Trading data is currently scattered across multiple platforms such as stock exchanges and investment banks. This makes it difficult for investors to access the accurate and up-to-date information they need to make decisions. The new system will make it easier for both professional and retail investors to access important information such as the price of instruments and the volume and timing of transactions, the countries said. Accurate and comparable market data are crucial for well-founded decision-making, according to the European Parliament.
EU states and parliament also want to ban so-called Payment for Order Flows (PFOF) with immediate effect. With this type of stock trading, brokers forward their customers’ orders to larger trading houses, from which they then receive money in return. According to Parliament, the ban is intended to protect investors from “suboptimal trading decisions”. Countries where PFOF are widespread should implement the ban by June 2026.
The new measures are part of the EU’s Capital Markets Union. The aim is to remove bureaucratic hurdles between the countries of the European Union in order to give companies more opportunities to raise money. Consumers should also have better access to investments in different countries. The federal states and the parliament now have to formally accept the proposals.
