The International Capital Market Association (ICMA) is gearing up to launch two new pilot services that will see post-trade information and data on large liquid bond dealings published online.
The Association has issued proposals for consultation on the new services, which it says will help establish a post-trade transparency standard.
The ICMA rule book currently requires market makers to report end of day prices and to report their trades to ICMA within 30 minutes but this data is not published.
The new services would see all trades in large, liquid bonds published at the end of the business day. This would be made available to vendors and market participants.
ICMA is also planning to launch a Web-based service that will enable retail investors to access educational material about investing in the bond market and give users access to a near-real-time tape of retail sized trades.
The scope of the pilot services would be restricted to investment grade corporate, supranational and government debt securities. Trade details would include price and time, on an anonymous basis, says ICMA.
ICMA says the services would increase post-trade transparency in the international bond markets. The proposals are being sent to the Committee of European Securities Regulators (CESR) and to the European Commission in relation to their review of transparency in non equity markets under MiFID.
Says Nick Collier, head of regulatory policy, ICMA: "The bond markets are a vital part of the European capital market and their success is based in part on industry driven good practice as set down in the ICMA rulebook.
"We hope that in their review of non equity market transparency the European Commission and European regulators will recognise the contribution that industry can make by setting its own standards."
The two pilot services are expected to launch later in the year, with an independent review expected in 2008.